Two employees at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency have sued the city, alleging that they faced persistent harassment, discrimination and retaliation because they are Jews.
The lawsuit, filed in late December by employment law firm Hoyer, Hicks & Gage in the Superior Court of San Francisco County, details allegations of verbal harassment against plaintiffs Alexander Lukovsky and Samuel Raphaelson. They also allege to have been targets of retaliation after reporting their complaints.
The plaintiffs worked in adjacent shops within the agency’s transit system, better known as Muni, starting in spring 2020, the complaint states. Lukovsky, 67, who is of Ukrainian Jewish descent, had worked for Muni since 1996 and was the primary target of most incidents alleged in the complaint. Raphaelsohn, 72, who is of Latvian Jewish descent, began working at Muni in May 2020.
Lukovsky and Raphaelsohn are suing the city and three co-defendants, including a Muni supervisor and a co-worker.
That co-worker began verbally attacking Lukovsky in 2017 and intensified such attacks after May 2021, the complaint alleges. The co-worker “habitually called Mr. Lukovsky a ‘Fat Russian F**got F**k,’ ‘Dirty Jew,’ and ‘cripple,’ because of Mr. Lukovsky’s hip replacements,” the complaint reads. The co-worker “seemed to believe that he could act with impunity, telling Mr. Lukovsky: ‘Go f**k yourself, I do everything I want here, and I am protected.’”
The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, which is representing the city and the employees listed as defendants, acknowledged the lawsuit but declined to comment further.
“We are reviewing the complaint and will respond in court,” the city attorney’s office said in an email to J.
The complaint alleges that the supervisor overlooked the co-worker’s conduct because of their personal relationship.
The lawsuit mentions a September 2017 complaint that Lukovsky submitted to human resources regarding an alleged verbal attack by the co-worker. The complaint was rejected, apparently because one incident wasn’t enough to create an “abusive working environment.”
After a May 2021 incident, the supervisor told Lukovsky that the co-worker could do “whatever he wants” and that Lukovsky should not “bother him,” the complaint alleges.
The harassment allegedly reached its peak following the Hamas massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the complaint states.
The co-worker “praised the attack,” the complaint reads, and told “Mr. Lukovsky that Hamas was making ‘very good progress… there will be less Jews in the world.’”
The complaint also alleges that the supervisor sought to undermine Lukovsky’s career advancement. Between April 2021 and June 2023, Lukovsky served as acting supervisor of the facility’s motor shop, but his tenure ended when the supervisor demoted him. According to the complaint, the supervisor explained his reasoning bluntly to Lukovsky.
The supervisor “wanted ‘to put the Jew in his place,’ and teach him to ‘keep his mouth shut’,” the complaint alleges.
The plaintiffs assert that the harassment, discrimination and retaliation violate California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, the California Family Rights Act and Labor Code Section 1102.5, known as the state’s primary whistleblower protection law.
The lawsuit lists other allegations of harassment toward Lukovsky, who has been on administrative leave since February 2024.
Once Lukovsky was gone, Raphaelsohn became the primary target of the co-worker’s harassment, the complaint alleges.
The co-worker “told him, ‘all you f***ing Jews are genocidal maniacs and it is a pity that Hitler didn’t finish you off. But we will,’” the complaint reads.
Although Raphaelsohn is still a Muni employee, the lawsuit states that he is afraid to go to work due to the conduct of the supervisor, co-worker and other employees.
The complaint seeks damages for lost wages and physical and emotional distress, as well as for a declaration that the defendants retaliated against the plaintiffs in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act, Family Rights Act and labor code.