A 66-year-old Southern California woman has sued the city of Beverly Hills, contending she didn’t receive a promotion because of her age and that hostility from a supervisor forced her to quit her job.
The woman has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and she alleges wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation and failure to prevent discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation.
She is seeking unspecified damages in the suit, which names both the city and the city’s director of parks and recreation. The woman had worked as a senior recreation supervisor.
The woman began her job in the recreation department in 1979, and in 2001, she was promoted to a job as assistant manager of Greystone Mansion, where a number of major events are held each year.
In December 2016, she was promoted to interim director of the facility and let her supervisor know she wanted the job full-time and applied for it. She had been credited for making an annual event at the mansion “a huge success” and received her usual $2,500 bonus for the special event.
In June 2017, after the big event, she had knee replacement surgery, was unable to attend the job interview for the promotion in person, the city didn’t make special accommodations, and they had to do it via Skype. Her lawsuit contends that was a disadvantage.
The job went to a woman in her mid-30s with far less experience, according to the lawsuit.
The relationship between the woman and the city’s parks and recreation director continued to deteriorate. She was denied the $2,500 bonus in 2018 after the special event and complained to the union. Then, the suit says, many of her responsibilities were taken from her, and she was reassigned to a low-profile job. “Hostility and humiliation” forced her to quit her job in February 2019, per the lawsuit.
If the facts listed in the woman’s lawsuit are accurate, she is well within her rights to file the lawsuit. Under both state and federal law, age discrimination is prohibited.