National Origin Discrimination Against a Scientist
Maria was a scientist and researcher at a research institution in Boston. She had worked there for three years, starting as a Chief Scientist and later promoted to Principal Investigator. In this role, she acquired numerous valuable grants, and was the lead on the funded research projects. Throughout the entirety of her employment, Maria received uniformly positive performance reviews.
For the last three months of her employment, Maria was placed under a new supervisor, who was non-Hispanic. She immediately began to experience hostility from this supervisor, who ridiculed Maria's suggestion that their differing backgrounds could allow them to collaborate effectively. Maria reported her discomfort with this conversation to Human Resources, but no action was taken. Shortly thereafter, she had another interaction with the supervisor, who stated that Maria was not worth the salary she was paid. She was then instructed not to have contact with the lead investigator on a major project she was leading. For the next several months, the supervisor continued to be antagonistic toward Maria, who was the only Hispanic person on the team, and at one point stating that Maria lacked the “ability to deliver the information clearly,” obviously implying that Maria did not have the ability to give a successful presentation because English was not her first language. Finally, Maria was abruptly terminated. She was told it was a restructuring, but all of the work she had been doing continued. Others with less experience and fewer credentials, all non-Hispanic, were retained. In addition to losing her job, Maria was told she could not publish as lead author several of the research projects she had spearheaded. Discrimination Law SolutionBoth the abruptness of the termination and the unwillingness to allow Maria to publish her own work were outside the norm in her area of work.
We reviewed the situation and drafted a letter to her former employer outlining her claims for national origin discrimination. We were able to negotiate not only an increased severance payment, but also permission to publish her own work under her own name. |
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Postscript
Maria's case serves as a reminder that severance payments are not always the only goal in a wrongful termination case. For Maria, protecting her professional reputation by publishing her work was at least as important. If you are in a similar situation, remember that you should identify for your attorney all of the things that are important to you, so they can be included in a settlement agreement if possible.
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