EXCLUSIVE: AT&T's former president of content and advertising has sued the telecommunications giant for wrongful termination, claiming he was fired as a "scapegoat" to clear the way for AT&T's $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV.
Slator had been playing a key role in negotiating and facilitating AT&T's merger with DirecTV. According to his lawsuit, one of his primary responsibilities throughout 2014 and early 2015 was "to prepare for AT&T and DirecTV's planned $48.5-billion merger," which had been announced in May 2014.
And according to his lawsuit, filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court, that's just what AT&T was afraid of, and that's why they threw him under the bus, even though top company executives had known about the text for more than a year.
According to his suit, the text had first been discovered in late-2013 by a previous executive assistant while transferring data from Slator's work phone. She then filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that numerous AT&T executives, including Slator, had discriminated against her on the basis of race and then retaliated against her for filing the EEOC charge.
The assistant, who reportedly received "protected status" at the company for being a whistle-blower, was transferred to a different department, but an internal investigation, conducted by an independent consultant, concluded that she had not been subject to racial discrimination, and that Slator's conduct did not warrant termination or any other adverse employment consequences.
According to his lawsuit, AT&T also "promised" him that he "would not be terminated or otherwise be subjected to any other adverse employment action as a result of the events underlying the 2013 incident. By proposing and making this agreement, AT&T and Slator understood that AT&T had modified Slator's 'at-will' employment status, so that Slator could not be terminated for the events or conduct underlying the 2013 incident and AT&T's investigation thereof." On that basis, the suit states, he agreed to continue his work for AT&T.
More than a year later, however, the executive assistant sent the offensive text to his new executive assistant, Knoyme King, who then filed suit against AT&T and several executives, including Slator, alleging race discrimination and unlawful retaliation. And that's when the text became public.
According to his suit, the "false and defamatory" press release was followed by a letter from Slator's supervisor, conveying the "business decision to terminate" his employment. "The letter plainly stated that the decision was made 'after a review of the circumstances and your past conduct.' In other words, AT&T terminated Slator for exactly the same events it earlier concluded were an illegitimate basis for his termination." By terminating him, his suit states, AT&T breached an oral agreement not fire him over the 2013 incident.
As it turned out, the King lawsuit followed closely on the heels of another lawsuit filed against AT&T and DirecTV by the National Association of African-American Owned Media and Entertainment Network Studios, which accused the companies of "racist and discriminatory practices" in their contracting process. Slator was not named as a defendant in that case, which was resolved when the companies agreed to add programming from Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios, which was also a plaintiff.