A San Leandro solar-power installer has been accused by federal regulators of refusing to do work for people with Indian or Middle Eastern names.

A former employee at Fidelity Home Energy blew the whistle after quitting the company, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Ayesha Faiz, a woman of Afghan descent, claimed she learned about the discrimination during her training, within the first week of her employment, the lawsuit filed in Northern California U.S. District Court said. The company denies the allegations she has made.

Faiz was hired in November 2015 as a supervisor of call-center employees tasked with following up on “leads” about potential customers, the suit said. She was directed to try to figure out whether last names on the list were Indian or Middle Eastern, and told that anyone with such a name should be told that no appointments were available, the suit alleged.

The trainer “also demonstrated for Ms. Faiz how to use Google to screen caller names if she was uncertain whether the lead was Middle Eastern or Indian,” the suit alleged. “She showed Ms. Faiz how to search the lead’s name and view images of people with the same last name as a method to try to discern the individual’s national origin.”

A lawyer for Fidelity said the firm had not yet seen the federal agency’s lawsuit, but noted that Faiz has sued the company in state court. “We have been defending a claim by a former employee who worked for the company for a mere 15 days in 2015,” said lawyer Susan Bishop. “Fidelity Home Energy denies the allegations being made by the former employee and will continue to aggressively defend against the claims. We cannot further comment due to the pending litigation.”

Fidelity, which sells and installs residential solar-power systems and other products including roofing and windows, had an internal “do not call” list of people whose names appeared to be Indian or Middle Eastern, the suit claimed. Some employees annotated database records for people with apparently Indian or Middle Eastern names, adding comments such as “We Won’t Run This” and “Indian Name!” the suit alleged.

“Ms. Faiz also saw a post-it note on an employee’s computer that said, ‘No Indians,'” the suit claimed.

Faiz only disclosed her Afghan ancestry when she was asked during her second week of employment if she could help with a Spanish-speaking customer, according to a court filing.

Throughout her employment at Fidelity, she raised objections to the practice, but it continued, the suit claimed. After less than a month at the company, Faiz sent a text to management saying, “It makes me sick to know that we refuse to service a particular ethnicity of people,” and she resigned that day, according to the suit.

The federal agency, before filing suit, said it offered Fidelity a chance to remedy the alleged practices, but did not receive an acceptable agreement. The agency is seeking an order that Fidelity correct its “offensive, abusive, intimidating and hostile work environment,” and that it give Faiz unspecified back pay and other compensation.

Faiz in 2017 sued the company in state court, and will drop that action if the federal court exercises jurisdiction over her claims, according to court filings.