A successful employment discrimination lawsuit is a journey of many steps. One of the most crucial ones is defeating your employer’s motion for summary judgment. If successful, this motion, which asks the judge to declare that your allegations have no legal pathway to success (even when viewed in the most favorable light,) ends your case immediately, before a trial even begins. Defeating this motion can generate many benefits. For some, it means having your “day in court.” For others, it means bringing the other side to the “negotiating table” more meaningfully and reasonably. Either way, successfully defeating this motion is vital and something where an experienced New York employment discrimination lawyer can vastly enhance your odds of success.
New York has a strong current of Italian-American culture, from politics to the arts to cuisine and more. Despite the robust presence of Italian Americans in New York, discrimination against this group remains a reality, and even though Italian Americans face different challenges compared to, say, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans, discrimination against Italian Americans can be just as pernicious and just as illegal as discrimination against these other groups.
Many of these stereotypes involve assuming all New York Italian-Americans are in (or connected to) the mafia. A recent discrimination case from Manhattan is a good example of these forms of misconduct in action and what’s needed to bring forward a legal case of discrimination.
N.D., a man of Italian ancestry, worked as an accountant/bookkeeper for a New York-based importer of floral displays. After over a decade with the company, the accountant received his “pink slip” in 2013. According to the accountant’s complaint, the employer terminated him due to his age, race/national origin, gender, and disability.
The accountant advanced his claim under the New York City Human Rights Law. When you, as an employee who faced discrimination, put forward a NYCHRL claim and your employer asks the court to award it summary judgment in its favor, the judge may only rule for the defense and end the case if what you presented demonstrates neither a viable claim under the “mixed-motive framework” nor the “burden-shifting framework” created by the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case of McDonnell Douglas v. Green.
The judge presiding over the accountant’s case concluded that the employer did not meet that high hurdle. As the court expressly explained, “discrimination rarely announces itself.” In other words, an employer rarely tells a worker that they are firing (or otherwise punishing) that worker because they are pregnant or gay or South Asian or diabetic etc., etc. Given that reality, what a worker must demonstrate to the court at the summary judgment phase of a case is comparatively slight.
The accountant’s assertions of race/nationality-based stereotyping and slurring were sufficient. Specifically, the accountant offered allegations of an anti-Italian slur and stereotyping all Italian-Americans as murderous mafiosos. The accountant specifically alleged that, before his firing, he told the employer’s president and CEO that the CEO lived near the accountant’s cousin in Brooklyn. In response, the CEO allegedly said, “Yeah, I live with the rest of those paisans, the killers and the murderers, your whole bunch.” The CEO told a female Italian-American employee to “go into the kitchen and make... meatballs,” according to the lawsuit.
The accountant asserted that these and similar comments occurred on a “repeated and pervasive” basis. That alone might not constitute the most overwhelming evidence of a “smoking gun” case of discrimination. Still, it was enough to avoid losing the case before ever making it to trial. This success allowed the accountant to continue his pursuit of additional facts and information (that could significantly strengthen his case) and his pursuit of justice.
Discrimination against anyone because of their country of origin or their ancestry is wrong. Employees should be judged by the quality of their work, not the content of their genes. If you have encountered discrimination because of your ancestry, call the knowledgeable New York national origin discrimination attorneys at Phillips & Associates. Our team is dedicated to helping workers of all races, points of origin, and ancestries to get justice for illegal discrimination. Contact us online or at (833) 529-3476 to set up a free and confidential consultation.