*Female Employees of ‘First 48’ Allegedly Experience Racial Bias and Low Pay
Kirkstall Road Enterprises is facing backlash after several female workers claimed they were subjected to racial bias and gender disparity.
Former employees who worked for A&E’s popular crime series “The First 48”- a show that follows detectives around in major cities to solve homicide cases, said they were exposed to harsh working conditions such as long hours and low pay.
“Being a woman in this industry is already challenging, but having to worry about retaliation just for requesting fair pay, it’s time for change to happen,” former associate producer Tiffany Magby told the Daily News.
Magby, 31, started working for “The First 48” in Atlanta, GA around September of 2015. Her position as an associate producer required her to meet with victims’ families to guarantee appearance releases, which often turned out to be a laborious process.
“If I were to meet with a family and my meeting went overtime, I was expected to stop a family meeting with grieving individuals to call the HR department and ask them if I could extend the meeting,” said Magby. “I worked for free a lot.”
Company execs even told Magby, a mother of two, to factor in her “motherhood” when asked to be promoted. On the other hand, her “white counterparts were being promoted at a higher rate.”
NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 22: Crime scene tape at the funeral for former “Bachelor” contestant Gia Allemand at Trinity Grace Church on August 22, 2013 in New York, New York. Allemand passed away on Wednesday, August 14th of an apparent suicide. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
“Had I known ahead of time what this experience would be like, I would’ve re-thought even taking the role,” Magby said.
Rosario Chico-Vietti, an Oklahoma-based associate producer, said she was terminated earlier this year after requesting for help from a TV union. Her counterpart who was also an associate producer for the A&E show said was immediately fired after speaking up about the bad treatment they were experiencing.
A spokeswoman of Kirkstall Road Enterprises, “First 48’s” production company, denied the ex-workers’ accusations on Tuesday and said they were “patently false.”
“Kirkstall Road unequivocally denies the accusations brought by this claimant and the WGAE,” the company stated. “Rather than utilizing the press as a forum, we look forward to presenting our defense at the NLRB hearing, and are confident we will prove these accusations are patently false.”
