Veteran alleges Labor Department cut his raises after he reported harassment

The timeline is where the case lives. In November 2023, the complaint says, his supervisor backed his promotion from GS-11 to GS-12. That April, he received what the filing calls a “glowing” mid-term review. Then he kept complaining, and he served as a witness in an internal sexual harassment investigation. In October 2024, the complaint says, his rating dropped to “minimally successful” – close on the heels of his protected activity.

That rating hit his wallet. Based on it, the filing says, his within-grade pay increase was denied on November 29, 2024. A second “minimally successful” rating in late 2025 led to a second denial on November 19, 2025.

The complaint also describes an accommodation breakdown. Lucas has service-connected disabilities, including traumatic brain injury and PTSD, and a 100% VA disability rating. He says informal accommodations he had long relied on stopped being honored under a new supervisor, that his medical condition was questioned, and that his confidential medical information was raised in front of co-workers at a mandatory all-hands meeting.

For HR teams, the pattern is the takeaway. The filing lays out a chain compliance leads worry about: protected activity, then closer scrutiny, then a lower rating, then a real financial hit. Lucas alleges his work was “routinely handed off to his GS-12 peers for evaluation and critique,” that he was singled out on telework and leave, and that he received a Letter of Reprimand in June 2025.

The suit brings three claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: discrimination and a hostile work environment tied to his association with a protected co-worker, retaliation, and a challenge that the pay denials were not supported by substantial evidence. He wants the denials reversed, the raises granted retroactively, and damages.