Another former Fox News employee, Adasa Blanco, filed a separate racial discrimination lawsuit on Tuesday against Fox News, Ms. Slater and Dianne Brandi, the top lawyer at Fox News, in federal court in the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuits contend that Fox News employees repeatedly complained about racial discrimination to current network executives but that no action was taken and that the inappropriate behavior continued.
In a statement, Catherine M. Foti, a lawyer for Ms. Slater, called the lawsuits “meritless and frivolous.”
”All claims of racial discrimination against Ms. Slater are completely false,” she said.
A Fox News spokeswoman said the network and Ms. Brandi “vehemently” denied the allegations, calling them “copycat claims” from the original lawsuit.
The lawsuit contends that Fox’s longtime comptroller engaged in racist behavior and made racist remarks and that senior executives ignored her actions.
In the class-action lawsuit — which names Ms. Slater, Ms. Brandi, Fox News and 21st Century Fox as defendants — the 11 current and former employees said that Ms. Brandi and Denise Collins, a human resources executive at Fox News, were aware of complaints about Ms. Slater’s racist behavior but told black employees that “nothing could be done because Slater knew too much about senior executives,” including Roger E. Ailes, the company’s former chief executive; Mark Kranz, the chief financial officer; and Mr. O’Reilly.
According to the class-action suit, Ms. Douglas complained in November 2014 to Ms. Brandi about Ms. Slater’s behavior. Another former Fox News employee, Wasim Rafick, who worked in the company’s payroll department from 2003 to 2016, complained about Ms. Slater’s behavior to Ms. Brandi and Ms. Collins in 2015 and in 2016.
The lawsuit filed by Ms. Blanco contends that she informed Ms. Brandi about Ms. Slater’s conduct as early as September 2008.
Among the plaintiffs is Kelly Wright, a current Fox News anchor and former co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend.” He said Mr. O’Reilly refused to allow him on his show to discuss racial conciliation and instead suggested he should call Mr. Ailes and Bill Shine, one of the network’s presidents, and “offer to sing the national anthem at the Fox News Town Halls,” according to the suit. The suit also contends that Ms. Slater demanded that minority employees arm-wrestle white female supervisors for her own “entertainment and amusement.”
Ms. Slater also mocked how black employees pronounced words like “ask” and “mother” and asked some black employees, “Who is going to Africa?” after President Trump’s travel ban, according to the suit.
Fox News has been reeling since the ouster of Mr. Ailes last summer amid a sexual harassment scandal. A New York Times investigation published this month revealed that five women had received a total of roughly $13 million to settle complaints about sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior by Mr. O’Reilly. The network then faced an exodus by advertisers from Mr. O’Reilly’s show. Protests and denunciations by women’s rights groups followed before Mr. O’Reilly’s ouster.
On Monday, Fox News introduced a new prime-time lineup, and other cable news networks are hoping to take advantage of the upheaval to cut into Fox News’s ratings lead.
Julie Roginsky, an on-air contributor at Fox News, also filed a sexual harassment lawsuit this month against the network, Mr. Ailes and Mr. Shine. Ms. Roginsky said she had faced retaliation for refusing sexual advances from Mr. Ailes.
Also on Tuesday, Rupert Murdoch, the head of 21st Century Fox, sent a memo to Fox News employees extolling the network’s ratings from Monday night, its first night with its reconfigured prime-time lineup missing Mr. O’Reilly.
“I know the last few weeks have been tough for everyone here, but our passion for news and commitment to our viewers continue to lead us through,” Mr. Murdoch wrote in the memo, which was obtained by Business Insider. “Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work.”