Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network has been hit with a sex and pregnancy discrimination lawsuit by a former employee, who claims she was laid off as a direct result of her pregnancy.
It’s been a rough few days for Winfrey, who recently injured her back picking up a birthday present from actor-director Tyler Perry. 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 Winfrey as one of the defendants, it is a big accusation to make against the network.
OWN’s former senior director for scheduling and acquisitions, Carolyn Hommel, filed the lawsuit after returning to work after her medical leave, only to find she had been replaced.
Before she was advised by her doctor to go on medical leave for her pregnancy, Hommel had received outstanding performance reviews, according to her lawsuit. She was even told that she was on track 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Hommel has been replaced by a temporary employee who was supposed to fill in only while she was away on leave.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 temporary employee was still there.
Hommel says in the lawsuit that her duties were slowly taken away from her and given to her temporary fill-in. In addition, she was excluded from several business meetings, while her temporary replacement went instead.
When Hommel was eventually laid off, 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 encouraged to re-apply for the vice president position, the lawsuit states.
According to Hommel, 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 under-qualified for the job.
Read more: Taylor Gordon, PopularCritic
