A former employee at an Xfinity-Comcast retail location in Connecticut is suing the company over claims underperforming workers were lashed to furniture while colleagues ambushed them with baked goods to the face – all at the behest of the store manager, who allegedly videotaped the monthly occurrences.

In a civil complaint filed last month in Meriden Superior Court and reviewed by The Independent, David Figueroa describes a “policy that the highest-ranked Retail Sales Consultant for the prior month was instructed by… the Comcast Store manager to tie the lowest-ranked sales consultant for the prior month to a chair in the back office and thereafter assault that person by violently smashing a cream pie in their face.”

This past February, Figueroa watched as a co-worker named Ty took a pie to the face over his apparently lackluster numbers, according to the complaint, which was first reported by the legal blog Law360.

“The co-worker who struck Ty in the face while Ty was tied-up had better sales results than Ty and, therefore, [the store manager] ordered him to assault his poorer performing co-worker, in front of his peers,” the complaint states.

It says another co-worker showed Figueroa a video of the store’s assistant sales manager being pied in the face “because [she] had received a poor survey score from a customer.”

Figueroa’s complaint says the store manager posted a chart in the office for all to see, ranking the store’s sales staff and naming the employees who “either had been recently assaulted or were scheduled to be assaulted in this way.”

“Defendant did not inform [Figueroa] prior to his acceptance of Defendant's offer of employment that the Comcast Store has a policy of subjecting Retail Sales Consultants to public assaults by co-workers at the direction of… the store manager-for the purpose of increasing Defendant's sales and profitability,” the complaint contends.

In an email on Monday, a Comcast spokesman told The Independent, “The Company has zero tolerance for harassment, humiliation or any behavior that compromises a respectful and safe workplace. This matter is in litigation so we will not comment on the specific allegations, other than to say that we disagree with the claims in the complaint and its characterization of the alleged events, and intend to fully respond through the legal process.”

Figueroa began working February 2 as a retail sales consultant at Comcast’s store in Plainville, about 15 miles southeast of Hartford, according to his complaint.

At the end of the month, after Figueroa witnessed his first pieing, the complaint says he contacted his boss’s boss, a regional manager, and told her about what he had seen. Watching people being “tied-up and violently assaulted” as a regular occurrence made Figueroa extremely uncomfortable, Figueroa told her, and he was having serious doubts as to whether or not he could continue working there, the complaint continues.

The regional manager asked Figueroa to send her a text “memorializing his concerns,” which he did. However, according to the complaint, Figueroa never received a response.

Figueroa quit on February 27, enduring the “hostile and violent work environment” for less than a month before the complaint says he felt he had no choice but to resign – known as a “constructive discharge,” in legal terms.

“An objective, reasonable person in [Figueroa’s] position would have felt compelled to resign his employment as a result of this work atmosphere that Defendant… created,” the complaint states.

It says Comcast’s “managerially-created and implemented policy of ordering employees to tie down and physically assault under-performing co-workers to promote the Defendant's revenues and profits constitutes a reckless indifference to the rights of others or an intentional violation of those rights.”

Employees, the complaint concludes, “should not be subject to assaults by co-workers for poor work performance.”

Figueroa is now seeking, in part, compensatory damages; emotional distress damages; and damages for loss of reputation, enjoyment of life, and embarrassment; plus back pay; front pay; and attorneys’ fees.