Title : Two NY1 anchors sue the network over claims they were 'fired for being pregnant'
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Two NY1 anchors sue the network over claims they were 'fired for being pregnant'
Two NY1 anchors sue the network over claims they were 'fired for being pregnant' - then replaced with much younger women
- Thalia Perez and Michelle Greenstein filed a lawsuit against NY1 on Wednesday
- Local reporter Perez said she was axed when she was 43 and in her 3rd trimester
- Traffic anchor Greenstein was canned after returning from maternity leave at 40
- Five NY1 reporters over 40 filed a similar Manhattan federal court suit last month
- They said they were 'blatantly marginalized' and younger anchors were favored
- NY1's parent company Charter said that while it takes the allegations 'seriously,' the plaintiffs' claims have 'no merit'
Two former on-air personalities at NY1 cable news station in New York City charged in a new lawsuit on Wednesday that getting pregnant ended their career at the network.
Thalia Perez and Michelle Greenstein filed a Manhattan federal court suit alleging that they were discriminated against because they were over 40 years old and either pregnant or returning from maternity to find that their roles were being given to women who do not have children.
The pair said they were inspired by a previous lawsuit filed by five other NY1 personalities between the ages of 40 and 61 in Manhattan federal court just weeks before, the NY Post reported.
Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci claimed the company 'blatantly marginalized them and cast them aside in favour of younger women and men' with less experience.
Thalia Perez is one of the two former anchors who filed a discrimination suit against NY1 Wednesday. The local reporter said she was axed when she was 43 and in her third trimester
Traffic anchor Michelle Greenstein was canned after returning from maternity leave at 40
It comes after five prominent NY1 reporters over 40 also sued the network over discrimination last month. In the back, from left, are Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Kristen Shaughnessy. In the front are Roma Torre and Amanda Farinacci
Perez, an Emmy award-winning reporter who covered local stories, said she was fired in October 2017 while in her third trimester. She was 43 at the time.
She had complained after Melissa Rabinovich, NY1's assistant news director, discovered that Perez was pregnant and cut her anchoring opportunities from 'Local Edition'.
'In total, Ms. Rabinovich constantly made Ms. Perez feel as though she were a blemish in the newsroom who was simply not wanted,' the lawsuit states.
Greenstein, who reported on traffic, said she was asked to come back from maternity leave just five weeks after giving birth in 2017, and that Rabinovich then told her she couldn't take on more anchoring work because she was a new mother.
'I did not think you could handle the flexibility of hours because you're a new mom and you have a lot going on,' Rabinovich allegedly told her, according to the suit.
Greenstein complained and was canned three months later at the age of 40.
'As a new mother, being told that my decision to have children would render me disposable to NY1 was extremely demoralizing,' Greenstein said in a news release.
'I had previously feared retribution for speaking up about this, but seeing the five current anchors share similar stories of gender and age discrimination, it gave me the strength and motivation to come forward with my experience,' she added.
Perez, seen in 2017 Twitter photos, felt like a 'blemish in the newsroom who was simply not wanted', the lawsuit states
'As a new mother, being told that my decision to have children would render me disposable to NY1 was extremely demoralizing,' Greenstein said in a news release
The opening page of the Manhattan federal court suit filed Wednesday alleging Perez and Greenstein were discriminated against
After Greenstein and Perez were axed, their roles were filled by much younger women and men, according to the suit.
NY1 'clearly made a decision to limit the on-air time of older women, in favor of younger women and men. Unfortunately, I was a victim of this decision-making – and the fact that I was pregnant clearly counted as only an additional mark against me,' Perez said.
A spokesperson for the network's parent company, Charter, said that while the company takes the plaintiffs' allegations 'seriously,' their claims have 'no merit.'
'These two women only provided fill-in work,' Maureen Huff said in a statement.
'A few years ago, we decided to employ more full-time on-air employees. At that time, we no longer had a need to call them for shifts.
'Our records show that neither Michelle nor Thalia applied for any open position,' Huff said.
NY Daily News reported that the new suit includes allegations of retaliation against 61-year-old anchor Roma Torre, one of the five women who filed the June lawsuit against NY1.
After suing, Torre was booted from the station's live coverage of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team parade, although she had covered every previous ticker tape parade of the last 20 years, according to court papers.
The suit includes allegations of retaliation against anchor Roma Torre, 61, one of the five women who filed the June lawsuit. She was recently booted from coverage of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team parade, after covering every ticker tape parade of the last 20 years
The trouble allegedly began when cable giant Charter took over NY1 (file image of a news van) through its acquisition of Time Warner in 2016 and began firing people off as it restructured
'NY1/Charter cannot on the one hand celebrate and promote women's soccer, but on the other hand treat female employees in a manner that runs completely afoul of what the team and its players stand for and represent,' Torre wrote in an open letter, adding that the soccer team has 'stood up to combat discrimination against women and equal pay violations'.
Both lawsuits were filed by attorney Doug Wigdor at Manhattan-based law firm Wigdor LLP.
'NY1/Charter has blatantly discriminated against older women who appear on-air – and disregarded any complaints of mistreatment – and this practice must end immediately,' Wigdor said.
Perez and Greenstein seek damages to be determined at trial.
According to the first lawsuit, the trouble began when cable giant Charter Communications took over NY1 through its $55 billion acquisition of Time Warner in 2016 and began firing people off as it restructured.
'There was a feeling that because of our age, we were not desirable on the air,' Vivian Lee, 44, an NY1 weekend news anchor, told 'As It Happens'. 'It was only happening to women.'
She said women in the business are constantly told that their work has 'an expiry date', while men are celebrated late into their careers.
'You could see a man age in the anchor seat, be celebrated for two decades, three decades, four decades helming a show, and you couldn't quite see that happening as much with women, and I think that is tied to the value that is placed on women,' Lee said.
Spokesperson Maureen Huff told 'As it Happens' that 57 per cent of NY1's on-air talent is female, and 55 per cent are over the age of 40.
'We take these allegations seriously, and as we complete our thorough review, we have not found any merit to them,' Huff said in an emailed statement.
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