FLORIDA COMPANY SEIZES EMPLOYEE’S COTTON BLOSSOM

CLEARWATER, FL – A supervisor at a Florida ice cream plant has asked the SLRC to investigate the confiscation by company officials of a stalk of cotton he brought to work to show fellow employees.

The employee, who works at a Good Humor/Breyers plant in Clearwater, says he picked the single stalk of cotton on his way back from a family reunion in Georgia and brought it to work to show his colleagues, many of whom had never seen an actual cotton boll. He placed the cotton on his desk, left his work station and returned to find the cotton gone. A company human resources officer told him it had been removed because it “might cause disruption.”

“It was just an object, a boll of cotton,” the employee said. “I brought it to show around because to me it’s pretty. That was the only motive.”

The employee says he feels the company’s action was arbitrary and unwarranted, undermined his supervisory position, and casts an unfavorable light on his record as an employee, without foundation. He is appealing through company channels while the investigation goes forward.

The Southern Legal Resource Center