RE: THE NEW YORK STATE DIVISION OF HUMAN RIGHTS CASE NO. 10207589/FEDERAL CHARGE NO. 16GC002661
On March 13, 2020, The Law Office of David H. Rosenberg, P.C. filed the aforementioned administrative action with the New York State Division of Human Rights (“DHR”) on behalf of a Hispanic female employee of Puerto Rican descent (“Complainant”) who had alleged that she was discriminated against by her employer, Jzanus Home Care Inc. (“Jzanus”), and supervisor, Deborah Turrito (“Turrito” and all together as “Respondents”), because of sex, national origin, race/color and retaliation for opposition to said practices in violation of N.Y. Exec. Law, art. 15 (“Human Rights Law”).
On July 10, 2020, Jzanus wrote to the Division that, prior to this, not one employee in over 28 years had ever successfully sued it for discrimination or retaliation. Indeed, Jzanus wrote, “Prior to this Complaint, Jzanus has never been accused of any harassment or discrimination by any employee” and accused Complainant of asserting false discrimination/retaliation allegations in retaliation for being terminated for poor attendance and insubordination. To this point, Jzanus argued, “not a single employee who was employed by the Company had as many absences as Complainant” and as a result of Complainants’ “call-outs”, the Company offered “counseling”.
For workplace harassment alleged to have occurred on or after October 11, 2019, or alleged to have continued until or beyond that date, the legal standard for actionable harassment, including but not limited to sexual harassment, has been changed by an amendment to the Human Rights Law. To be an unlawful discriminatory practice, harassment is no longer required to be “severe or pervasive.”
The Law Office of David H. Rosenberg also successfully argued that such offered excuses were a pretext and achieved a PROBABLE CAUSE determination in Complainant’s favor against Respondents from the DHR who determined that, “Turrito engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct at work and to what extent that conduct may have created a hostile work environment.”
If you, or someone you know, is suffering at work, please contact The Law Office of David H. Rosenberg, P.C., and call (516) 741-0300 for a free and confidential case review. Problems at work are no problem for us.