Sex Discrimination Suit Against Bloomberg Dismissed

No evidence discrimination against mothers and pregnant women was 'standard operating procedure'

A federal judge has dismissed a sex discrimination suit against Bloomberg L.P., the media and financial services company started by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The New York Times' David W. Chen reports. Judge Loretta Preska said the suit, filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of more than 80 Bloomberg employees, failed to show that it was "standard operating procedure" at the company to discriminate against women who took maternity leave, "even if there were several isolated instances of individual discrimination."

Though Bloomberg wasn't a defendant--the alleged discrimination happened after he left to be mayor--the dismissal is still a big victory for him, Chen writes:

[T]he suit was a political albatross for the mayor, since the plaintiffs asserted that "Michael Bloomberg is responsible for the creation of the systemic, top-down culture of discrimination."

 

Mr. Bloomberg was also compelled to testify, for eight hours over two days, in a deposition in which he was testy and sarcastic but also confident that the company would be found to have acted appropriately.