On March 5, 2010, a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia found Novartis Pharmaceuticals liable for retaliation in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), awarding Mary Kate Breeden over $289,669 in back pay. Under the FMLA’s liquidated damages provision, this amount is automatically doubled and entered as a partial judgment of $579,338. The District Court has yet to decide the amount of front pay, attorney fees, and costs to award.
Kate Breeden worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative for Novartis. After announcing that she was pregnant, Novartis cut her sales territory in half leaving her with fewer and smaller accounts. When she objected to the change, her supervisor said it was temporary and that she would be made “whole.” Upon returning from maternity leave, Ms. Breeden was informed that the changes were permanent. Novartis later reorganized the sales territories again, at which time they consolidated her territory with another and eliminated her position. Defending their actions, Novartis claimed that an outside consulting firm organized the realignment and did not take Ms. Breeden’s FMLA leave into account. However, her maternity leave was mentioned in a Powerpoint presentation given by the consulting firm.
The jury found that Novartis retaliated against Ms. Breeden by cutting her sales territory when she announced that she was going to take leave or later when Novartis refused to make her “whole” after she returned to work, ultimately hurting her career and leading to her termination. Ms. Breeden is represented by Adam Augustine Carter and R. Scott Oswald, Principals at The Employment Law Group® law firm. For more information about Mr. Carter, Mr. Oswald and the firm’s Family and Medical Leave Act Discrimination Practice, click here.
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Family and Medical Leave Act, Pregnancy Discrimination, The Employment Law Group.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
Ada federal lawyers washington dc, Age discrimination Maryland lawyer, Age discrimination attorney, DC Discrimination, DC Employment Discrimination, Discrimination in the workplace, Discrimination law, Discrimination lawyer, Employment Discrimination, Employment law DC, Employment law, Employment lawyer, Hiring discrimination, Top employment lawyer, age discrimination, age discrimination act, age discrimination attorney, age discrimination cases, age discrimination claim, age discrimination counsel, discrimination law offices, hostile work environment, age discrimination employment act, Quid pro quo harassment, DC Discrimination attorney, Civil Right lawyer in Washington dc, Disability attorney, Disability discrimination, Disability discrimination attorney, Disability discrimination lawyer, Disability employment discrimination, Disability employment law, Discrimination law offices, Employment law, Employment law dc, Hiring discrimination, Physical disability discrimination, Top employment lawyer, Workplace disability discrimination, Workplace discrimination, disability attorney, disability discrimination act, disability discrimination law, social security disability attorney, social security disability lawyer, gender discrimination, sex discrimination, employee rights on sexual harassment Virginia, employment harassment, employment lawyer, harassment in workplace, harassment lawyer in Washington dc, harassment lawyers, hostile environment sexual harassment, hostile work environment, Maryland sexual harassment, sexual harassment at workplace, sexual harassment attorney, sexual harassment in the work place, sexual harassment law, sexual harassment lawyer, sexual harassment policies, sexual harassment policy, termination, workplace sexual harassment, wrongful terminationlawyers, harassment attorney, LGBT Discrimination Attorneys, Employment discrimination against gays, Employment discrimination against Lesbians, Gay Issues in Workplace, Gender based discrimination, Harassment discrimination, LGBT Workplace Discrimination, Sexual Orientation Discrimination, Transgender discrimination, gay discrimination, gay rights attorneys, gay rights lawyers
lifestyle discrimination