A New Jersey woman has sued the National Basketball Association, Inc., NBA Entertainment, Inc., and NBA Properties, Inc. in federal court in the Southern District of New York alleging that she was “underpaid, under-promoted and ultimately pushed out of the organization because of her gender, pregnancy, and infant caregiving responsibilities,” according to the law firm that is representing her.
Plaintiff Brynn Cohn, who is being represented by the civil rights law firm of Sanford Heisler, LLP, alleged that while she was on pregnancy leave, “the NBA’s management changed her department’s hours, demanding that she and other women with caregiving responsibilities work at the office into the evenings even though there was no business need for the late hours. With no nearby daycare centers open during her evening shifts, and unable to spend thousands of dollars more per year for alternative childcare, Ms. Cohn was constructively forced out of the Company, along with two other women with young children.”
Cohn and her attorneys alleged that “high-level managers in the NBA’s Creative Services Department routinely expressed covert and overt hostility toward female employees who had young children. For example, the Director of the Department compared children to pets, asking why working mothers could not make the same child care arrangements she made for her dogs when she had to work past 5 p.m.
“Within this climate of workplace hostility and marginalization, the NBA’s work schedule change in September 2010 had a disparate impact on women with caregiving responsibilities. Under the new schedule, all account managers and designers in the Creative Services Department’s Print group — Ms. Cohn’s division — were required to work in the office from noon to 8 p.m. two days each week. In order to fulfill the altered work schedule requirements, Ms. Cohn would have had to spend several thousand dollars more on child care annually — a financial burden she could not afford.”
Sanford Heisler went on to note that “the new working hours were in stark contrast to the hours Ms. Cohn had worked at the NBA for nearly a decade — 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. — and no rationale was given for the change. Moreover, during the time the changed schedule was in effect, the NBA granted exceptions to male employees and to women without childcare responsibilities, but refused to allow mothers like Ms. Cohn to work remotely.
“As a result of the NBA’s change in work schedule, Ms. Cohn was constructively discharged from the job she had held for almost a decade in January 2011. Two other women with young children were also forced to resign for similar reasons. Shortly after Ms. Cohn and the other women were forced out, the Creative Services Department reinstated its previous work schedule.”
The plaintiff also alleged that the NBA “retaliated” against her fiancé, another NBA employee, “when he complained about his partner’s unfair treatment,” denying him a promotion he had been promised. He resigned in May 2011.
Specifically, the complaint alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, the Equal Pay Act, as well as state law claims. Cohn is seeking an award of back pay, front pay, lost job benefits, and other equitable relief, as well as compensatory and punitive damages, prejudgment and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses.
The complaint alleges that “The NBA pays lip service to gender equality, claiming that ‘equal employment opportunity is a fundamental principle at the NBA.’ In reality, however, the NBA is openly hostile to working mothers like Ms. Cohn. In the department where Ms. Cohn worked, women with young children were routinely met with eye-rolling and snide comments, and denied the same pay and promotion opportunities as other employees.”
