On Wednesday, a U.S. judge dismissed a class action discrimination suit against Bloomberg LP because of insufficient evidence. The 2007 suit was brought against the privately-held, New York-based media and information services company by the Equal Opportunity Commission. The government agency alleged that between 2002 to 2007 female employees at Bloomberg were demoted and that their pay was cut after they became pregnant.
The original lawsuit, filed on behalf of over 80 employees, stated that after disclosing their pregnancies, women at the company were replaced by “junior” male employees and subjected to comments like “you are not committed” and “you don’t want to be here.” Further, the plaintiffs asserted that the company systematically reduced their pay and demoted them. The women’s complaints to the company’s human resources department were largely ignored, the plaintiffs said.
Although New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg founded the company, he shirked any personal responsibility and involvement at the time of the suit, stating that he had not been involved in running Bloomberg LP since 2001 when he ran for mayor.
However Bloomberg is not immune to allegations of discriminating against women in the workplace; in 1997, he was sued by a sales executive who said that after she became pregnant, Bloomberg urged her to have an abortion, telling her to “kill it!”. That same complainant also alleged that she and other female employees were subjected to unwelcome sexual comments during the time Bloomberg ran the company.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ultimately tossed the 2007 suit Wednesday because there was insufficient evidence that discrimination was Bloomberg L.P.’s “standard operating procedure, even if there were several isolated instances of individual discrimination.” The judge wrote: “‘J’accuse!!’ is not enough in court … Evidence is required.”
While the ruling still allows the plaintiffs to proceed with individual claims, legal experts said that such cases were generally much harder to prove.
