Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network is being hit with a sex and pregnancy discrimination lawsuit by a former employee who claims she was laid off as a direct result of her getting pregnant.
It’s been a rough few days for Oprah who recently injured her back trying to pick up Tyler Perry’s birthday present. Now that she’s finally back on her feet, her network is facing a major lawsuit from a former employee.
The lawsuit was filed Friday and although it does not list Oprah Winfrey as one of the defendants, it is a big accusation to make against her network.
OWN’s former senior director or scheduled and acquisitions, Carolyn Hommel, filed the lawsuit after returning to work after her medical leave only to find things had changed and she had been replaced.
Before she was forced to go on medical leave due to her pregnancy, she had received outstanding performance reviews and was even told that she might be up for a vice president position within the company.
After her leave, however, nothing was the same.
Hommel has been replaced by a temporary employee who was supposed to fill in only while she was away on leave, however, when Hommel returned to OWN the so-called temporary employee was still there.
Before she knew it her duties were slowly but surely being taken away from her and given to her temporary fill in. Thing only grew worse when the new mommy was excluded from several business meetings, while her not-so temporary replacement went instead.
Hommel grew fishy of what was going on, but it wasn’t until she was laid off that she realized she needed to take action.
In March of 2012, just a month after she gave birth to her adorable daughter, Hommel received the news that she had been laid off but she was still encouraged to re-apply for the vice president position.
According to the former employee, her boss Michael Garner gave a not-so accurate representation of her performance review that made her duties seem much less “senior” than they really were which meant she was suddenly under qualified for the job.
As you probably figured out by now, Garner is the one listed as a defendant in the lawsuit and will have quite a few questions to answer about the new employee who was supposed to only be a temporary replacement.
The lawsuit is slapping Oprah’s OWN Network with several accusations including sex discrimination, disability discrimination, failure to prevent discrimination, retaliation and willful failure to pay wages after discharge or termination.
With Michael Bononi and Christi Granieri of Bononi Law Group representing her, Hommel is seeking unspecified damages which are sure to cost the network quite a pretty penny if she is successful.
