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Forest Pharmaceuticals Hit with $100M Gender Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit
By Matt O’Donnell
Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has been hit with a $100 million class action lawsuit alleging companywide gender discrimination against female sales representatives. It is seeking to represent more than 1,500 employees who were allegedly paid less, denied promotions and had their employment opportunities limited based on their gender. Pregnant employees and those with family responsibilities were among the most discriminated against, the class action lawsuit says.
According to the Forest Pharmaceuticals gender discrimination class action lawsuit, the company “engaged in systematic, companywide discriminatory treatment of female employees based on their gender, their taking of federally and state-protected maternity leave, and their status as pregnant women or caregivers.”
Plaintiffs claim Forest Pharmaceuticals paid them less than their male counterparts, despite exemplary performance, and denied them bonuses, promotions and other employment incentives as a result of their gender and their taking maternity leave, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the Equal Pay Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
“To make matters worse, when women raise these concerns with Forest management and Human Resources, Forest completely disregards their concerns and instead blames the women themselves for the discrimination they suffer,” said the lead attorney representing the Plaintiffs. “The discrimination is deeply ingrained in Forest’s culture. A class action is the only recourse women have to address these grievous wrongs and to restore female employees’ rights.”
Two of the Plaintiffs allege in the Forest gender discrimination class action lawsuit that they were also subjected to offensive sexist and blatant sexual remarks by Forest’s male management, who then threatened to jeopardize their career if they told anyone or raised a complaint with the human resources department.
“Forest either does not have or does not follow policies that reduce or eliminate disparate impact on women and gender bias,” the women’s attorney continued. “Instead, the company permits the gender stereotypes of Forest’s predominately male managerial and supervisory staff to influence the company’s personnel decisions. These practices are clearly illegal and must be stopped before other female employees’ lives and livelihoods are affected.”
The Forest Pharmaceuticals gender discrimination class action lawsuit is seeking $100 million in back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages and more for more than 1,500 female sales reps. It is also seeking injunctive relief that includes restructuring Forest’s personnel policies and procedures so that female employees can enjoy the same conditions of employment as Forest’s male employees.
The company said in a statement, “We believe these claims have no merit and will defend ourselves vigorously.”
Updated July 25th, 2012
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