PLAINTIFF RAISED QUESTIONS OF FACT ABOUT WHETHER SHE WAS THE VICTIM OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION; UPON HER RETURN FROM MATERNITY LEAVE SHE WAS TOLD HER POSITION HAD BEEN ELIMINATED (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined plaintiff’s gender-discrimination action against defendant employer should not have been dismissed. Upon returning from maternity leave, plaintiff was informed her management-level position had been eliminated and replaced by a position for which she was not qualified. Defendant did offer plaintiff a job as a temporary social worker at the same salary:
“Discrimination on the basis of pregnancy is a form of gender discrimination” … . …
… [T]he defendant failed to eliminate triable issues of fact as to whether the position offered to the plaintiff involved a materially adverse change in the terms of her employment, since the social worker position did not involve any of the management responsibilities that the plaintiff had performed … . …
… [T[here were triable issues of fact as to whether the plaintiff’s supervisor, Segree, made remarks [re: her pregnancy] indicative of a discriminatory motive to terminate the plaintiff’s employment … . …
Contrary to the defendant’s contention, it also failed to eliminate triable issues of fact as to whether the proffered explanation for terminating the plaintiff’s employment was a pretext for discrimination … . Although McDonald averred that the plaintiff’s employment was terminated because she had no business education and no sales or marketing experience, he acknowledged that a business education was not required. Lefort v Kingsbrook Jewish Med. Ctr., 2022 NY Slip Op 01294, Second Dept 3-2-22