Ex-anchorwomen claim NY1 refuses to nominate their work for Emmys


The five female reporters who recently settled a gender discrimination suit against NY1 now claim the station has retaliated against them by refusing to nominate their work for Emmy Awards, according to a complaint filed Monday with the city’s Commission on Human Rights.

Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci reached a confidential deal in December after suing NY1’s parent company Charter Communications alleging that they were passed over in favor of younger co-workers and male talent like anchor Pat Kiernan.

As part of the agreement, the female anchors ended their storied careers at the network, but were promised that their work would still be submitted for Emmy Awards — however “Charter has since reversed course and is now refusing to do so,” the filing alleges.

The five on-air reporters are looking for new jobs and “such recognitions are of enormous benefit to one’s career and marketability,” according to the complaint.

“This is a blatant attempt to further retaliate against complainants for their decision to file claims against Charter and publicly and openly advocate for their right to be free from discrimination,” wrote the women’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor in the filing.

Charter defended the network’s conduct in a statement, saying: “We reached a confidential resolution at the end of last year and as a result, have mutually agreed to part ways. While the women no longer work at NY1, we do not prohibit former employees from submitting their work for Emmy consideration.”

Pat Kiernan
Pat Kiernan
WireImage

The complaint claims that in December 2020, each of the women had extensive discussions with upper management about which of their pieces would be nominated for Emmy Awards.

But after they settled their suit, Charter reneged to exact “further vengeance against these brave women who stood up for themselves,” the complaint alleges.

The filing demands a probe into what they allege is Charter’s “discriminatory and retaliatory conduct.”

In the now-settled federal lawsuit, the women, ranging in age from 40 to 61, charged that after a 2016 merger between founding Time Warner Cable and Charter, their careers began to decline.

“Their on-air time has been dramatically reduced, anchoring opportunities have disappeared, prime reporting roles have been taken away and promotional efforts have vanished,” the suit stated. “All these opportunities which have been snatched from plaintiffs have been distributed to numerous younger women and men with substantially less experience.”

Other NY1 employees allegedly made “disparaging statements about Ms. Torre’s age and appearance” — including that NY1 significantly cut her on-air time “because they felt an ‘older woman’ who battled ‘cancer’ looked ‘too old’ for the show’s aesthetic.”

At one point, the veteran reporters demanded details of Kiernan’s contract and pay package to try to prove the disparity in treatment — but a federal judge shot down the request.

.

Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *

*