A longtime mainland-based government employee has filed a federal suit claiming she was terminated because the Tourism Department and Commissioner Joseph Boschulte preferred native-born Virgin Islanders, even if they were less productive. The suit also alleges workplace harassment and mismanagement.
Kay Milliner-Kitchens, the former sales director, told the V.I. District Court she had been an exemplary Tourism employee for more than 20 years. From her home office in Atlanta, Milliner-Kitchens represented the territory at trade shows and organized trips to familiarize travel agents and other industry professionals with what the USVI had to offer.
When Boschulte took over Tourism in 2019, however, the “workplace became discriminatory and rapidly deteriorated,” according to the suit filed Aug. 29. Milliner-Kitchens alleged three other mainland-based USVI government employees received favorable treatment because of familial connections: an Atlanta-based independent contractor was the cousin of Boschulte’s wife; a New York-based independent contractor was the sister of Angel Dawson, CEO of the Government Employees’ Retirement System; and a Los Angeles-based independent contractor was the daughter of former Attorney General Denise George-Counts.
In June 2019, according to the suit, Tourism breached a decade-old agreement and stopped paying Milliner-Kitchens $200 monthly to use her home as an office rather than a more-costly leased space. She was expected to use her home as an office without remuneration and work overtime without overtime pay, the suit alleged.
“Apparently, the DOT, with the onset of the tenure of Commissioner Boschulte, adopted and maintained a policy of compensating off-shore African American employees less favorably than native Virgin Islanders,” the suit alleged, referring to Department of Tourism as DOT. “At the same time, under the leadership of Commissioner Boschulte, native Virgin Islanders, regardless their location or employment status with the DOT, received increased remuneration for their work with the DOT. This remains true regardless the experience, work-product quality or tenure of the relationship of the native Virgin Islander and between the native Virgin Islander and DOT.”
In 2022, when the New York-based independent contractor stopped working for four months because Tourism failed to pay on time, Milliner-Kitchens had to fill in, essentially working two jobs without greater pay, according to the suit. But in the end, it was the New York-based employee who received a $20,000 raise, not Milliner-Kitchens.
That same year, Milliner-Kitchens said she was asked to supervise all the independent contractors and be responsible for their work. The problem was, she said, there was little evidence of work being done.
“Milliner-Kitchens enquired as to how she could approve the invoices submitted by the independent contractors for payment when they did not meet the terms of their contract and when there is no evidence of any work being performed,” she alleged in the suit. “The Assistant Commissioner responded that they do wonderful things online. Milliner-Kitchens said that may be the case, but it is not reflected in their reports.”
Milliner-Kitchens created a system to qualify their work and sent it to Boschulte, she alleged in the suit, but the commissioner never responded and had all the contractors report directly to him.
The contractors rarely even submitted reports about their activities and 99 percent of the key performance indicators, or KPIs, achieved were because of her work alone, she told the court.
Milliner-Kitchens said she warned Boschulte the Atlanta-based independent contractor was not productive and a poor choice to rehire.
“The commissioner stated that he had to hire her because she is his wife’s cousin,” according to the suit.
Boschulte said he had no comment when reached Wednesday afternoon.
Although Milliner-Kitchens had 20 years on the job, the independent contractors were initially hired at her exact same salary, she said.
“The independent contractors were unmanageable and were not subject to discipline. In addition to not submitting reports and engaging in work stoppages, they did not track their KPIs,” Milliner-Kitchens alleged.
She soon became the target of workplace bullying and harassment by the independent contractors, she told the court.
“The commissioner failed and refused to create and maintain a safe and non-hostile work environment,” according to court records.
In April 2023, when Milliner-Kitchens needed to take time off as allowed under the Family and Medical Leave Act, she was told she could take a maximum of six weeks. After filling out the paperwork, she discovered she was actually allowed 12 weeks, according to court records. Tourism refused to formally approve or disapprove the leave, she said, but asked her to ensure her calendar was clear before going. She wound up returning to work four weeks early to meet Tourism projects.
Twice over the summer of 2023 Tourism botched Milliner-Kitchens’ projects, she said in the suit. The department failed to approve her travel to a luxury tourism summit and did not send anyone in her place, meaning the territory lost its $8,800 registration fee for the trade show. Then, about a month later, Tourism bungled a familiarization trip when Boschulte allegedly refused to reply to Milliner-Kitchens’ efforts to coordinate the event where travel advisors and journalists are shown the best of the Virgin Islands.
“The commissioner failed and refused to respond to any of her efforts to contact him,” she alleged.
When Milliner-Kitchens wrote to Boschulte to complain about workplace bullying, she was fired, according to the suit.
July 12, 2023, nine days after her 20th anniversary on the job, Milliner-Kitchens was told over a video call that she’d be fired.
“The termination of Milliner-Kitchens’ employment was not for cause or for any reason related to the performance of her job duties,” the suit alleged. “The termination letter was tendered one month after Milliner-Kitchens had returned from the period of leave she took pursuant to the Family and Medical Leave Act. The termination letter was tendered six months after Milliner-Kitchens had filed a written report against a DOT contractor for bullying and harassment.”
Milliner-Kitchens alleged discrimination based on race or national origin in violation of the Virgin Islands Civil Rights Act section of the V.I. Code, harassment, retaliation, and a hostile work environment in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and V.I. Code, and wrongful termination.
“The DOT maintains a two-tier off-shore workforce where native Virgin Islanders are favored and African American statesiders are discriminated against. The former are entitled to remuneration without proof of work and protected from bullying and harassment. The latter have had their compensation cut, are expected to ‘go along to get along,’ and are subjected to bullying and harassment up to and including termination,” according to the suit.
Milliner-Kitchens is seeking damages including lost income, lost leave, punitive damages, and an injunction barring Tourism from “discriminatory practices and harassment.”
