Merck Faces 100 Million Discrimination Lawsuit
Pharmaceutical giant Merck is fighting a $100 million gender discrimination lawsuit that claims that the company regularly and systemically discriminates against female employees, especially pregnant women and women with young children.
The lawsuit has been filed by Kelli Smith, who claims that she was regularly overlooked when it came to promotions. In fact, according to her lawsuit, she was actually demoted for taking maternity leave in 2010. After she returned from her maternity leave, she faced a number of other discriminatory actions by the company, including unfair performance evaluations, as well as other measures that severely restricted her chances for progress at the company.
According to the lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, the company engaged in systemic, companywide discrimination of female employees, especially those who took pregnancy leave. The company’s incentive plan which has been adopted across the company, also allegedly reduces compensation given to managers and directors, when their employees take federally and state-protected pregnancy leave. Because of this policy, the company actually blatantly discriminates against pregnant women and women with young children who need to take maternity leave.
Merck is the latest in a long line of pharmaceutical companies that are facing discrimination lawsuits filed by female employees who claim that these companies engage in discrimination practices, especially those aimed at women who take maternity leave. In May 2010, Novartis was ordered to pay damages of $250 million after a court found that the company had engaged in discriminatory practices against thousands of female employees. These employees had been subjected to discriminatory practices, in which they were passed over for promotions, given lower pay than their male counterparts, and discriminated against in pregnancy policies.
