New York Employment Lawyer Blog

Several days ago, the Novartis gender discrimination class action trial began in the Southern District of New York. It is one of the largest classes of plaintiffs and over 5,500 Novartis employees are included.

Among the allegations the female employees have made is that highly qualified women were passed over for promotions and not compensated equitably compared with their male counterparts. Also, there appear to be claims with respect to the company allegedly dissuading women from having a children and family responsibilities.

In the coming weeks, the U.S. House of Representatives will likely vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would offer protection to employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The bill has 198 co-sponsors and debate on it is expected to be vigorous. Currently, sexual identity and orientation is not protected on a federal level, rather it is up to the individual state or municipality's own legislature to include it in its own human rights laws. 29 states currently do not protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and in 38 states, sexual identity is not protected.

Additional information can be found here.