After less than a year of litigation, Novartis has agreed to pay $8.2 million to settle a proposed collective class action lawsuit filed by more than a dozen female employees who claimed they were denied equal pay and promotional opportunities because of their gender.
The settlement, which must still be approved by a federal court in New York, would involve much less than the $110 million that was initially sought by former and present employees at the company’s Alcon Laboratories eye product unit. However, one of the women has not agreed to the settlement.
The lawsuit had gained notice, in part, because the women claimed the company fostered “a boys’ club atmosphere and mentality” that is hostile to women and restricts access to leadership positions, according to court documents.
The lawsuit also came nearly six years after the drug maker agreed to pay $152.5 million to settle a gender-discrimination class action lawsuit brought by several female sales representatives. In that case, the company reached a deal after a jury awarded $250 million to the sales reps.
A Novartis spokeswoman confirmed that a settlement had been reached but declined further comment. A spokeswoman for the lawyers representing the employees and former employees of Novartis’ Alcon also declined to comment.
The original lawsuit was filed last March by just two employees but was later expanded as a proposed collective class action lawsuit and included other past and present employees. The lawsuit charged that women comprised less than 15 percent of senior Alcon management positions, and that this contributed to the alleged discrimination.
The women also claimed companywide metrics were used to assess job performance that were “subjective and used to downgrade the performance ratings of female employees,” because final decision-making authority is given to Alcon managers who are primarily male, according to the lawsuit.
The one former employee who did not settle, Elyse Dickerson, charges she encountered discrimination after requesting promotions, according to the lawsuit. A former global director of pharmaceuticals, she later filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and was fired while on a medical leave, the lawsuit states. She also claims her termination occurred shortly before $750,000 in stock grants would have vested.
As we have noted in the past, this was just one of several sex discrimination lawsuits to be filed against big drug makers in recent years. The lawsuits emerged as the pharmaceutical industry shed thousands of jobs, including in ways that may have left the companies vulnerable to charges of discrimination.
The same law firm representing the Novartis employees — Sanford Heisler Kimpel — had also filed the earlier case against the drug maker, as well as lawsuits against Merck, Daiichi Sankyo, and Forest Laboratories, which is now part of Allergan. All of the companies denied the charges.
About the Author Reprints
While I worked in the Ciba Corporation Corporate IT department for 15 years there were many female co-workers. I never once heard one of those female co-workers complain about how they were treated by the company. They were all very happy to be employed by Ciba Corporation and were treated very respectfully, got promoted, had children there, etc. In fact while I was working there after I had my first child the company enacted a new policy to allow new mother’s to telecommute while caring for their new child at home. I tried it for a while but decided the child was better off with a sitter while I came into the office to work but that was really kind of the company to offer such an option to new mothers there. It was a sweet company to work for. Great place to work for females.
I, as a female employee of Ciba Corporation, now Novartis, was treated very well by the company. During my years at Ciba Corporation they paid for my college courses in Computer Science. The company promoted me on a regular basis, based on my great work performance there as a Programmer. When I was pregnant with my first child at Ciba Corporation I was treated very well and just allowed to do my job there as usual. The IT group, headed by Linda Repaci at the time, gave me a surprise baby shower with lot’s of baby gifts from my very kind co-workers. I went on maternity leave for two months and returned to my former job, working there as usual. Afterwards I asked to be placed in an open job to support 4 accounts payable computer systems and was awarded that opportunity. In that job the accounts payable department managers gave me extra monetary bonus awards due to my great performance in that job function. I now am eligible to receive my retirement benefits after my 15 years of employment at Ciba Corporation, once I reach the age of 65. I left the company during 1994 due to the impending merger and to seek employment elsewhere. Ciba Corporation was a happy time in my life. Lot’s of fun there with my co-workers, playing softball, bowling together, attending other people’s birthday celebrations, weddings, etc. It was a great company to work for as a female employee in my younger years.