Former Green Thumb Industries Employee Files Sex and Age Discrimination Lawsuit

A former employee at Green Thumb Industries (GTI) has filed a sex and age discrimination lawsuit against the company, according to Green Market Report. Carrie Baker, who worked at a Rise dispensary in Pennsylvania and is in her mid-50s, said she was passed over for a shift supervisor position in favor of a much younger and less qualified male co-worker prompting her to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) in 2018. 

Once she filed the PHRC complaint, Baker said she began receiving unfair and disproportionate disciplinary actions at work, which would lead to her eventually quitting in June 2019, the report says. 

She then filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in February 2020. The EEOC announced they closed their investigations into the PHRC complaint and the EEOC complaint in late June, noting they were not issuing a determination and issued Baker her suit rights. She then filed a lawsuit on September 22, the report says.  

Baker is now working in the medical cannabis division for Pennsylvania’s Department of Health.

In 2021 and 2022, GTI was named to Crain’s Chicago Business Fast 50 list and Best Workplace by MG Retailer magazine in 2018, 2019, and 2021. It has 77 open dispensaries in 15 states and employs more than 4,000 employees, the report notes.