April 01, 2005
In a lawsuit filed by Schall & Barasch in federal court
against the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE),
three female investigators employed by that agency have
accused it of creating a “caste system”
in which women are relegated to lower-paying jobs with
little chance of promotion.
The lawsuit, docketed on Monday, March 28, 2005 in
the United States District Court in Trenton, alleges
that the OAE – the agency responsible for disciplining
attorneys in the State– has systematically discriminated
against its female and minority investigators over a
number of years. Specifically, the lawsuit claims that
the OAE has violated the federal Equal Pay Act by paying
its female investigators less than its male investigators
although they perform essentially the same work. The
suit further alleges that the OAE has violated the New
Jersey Law Against Discrimination in routinely refusing
to hire and promote women into the higher-paying investigator
classification, known as AS-4, and has instead kept
them trapped within the lower-paid AS-3 classification.
Finally, the suit alleges that the OAE has further violated
the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by allowing
and perpetuating a sexually hostile work environment
in which plaintiffs have been forced to work.
The three plaintiffs in the suit, Margaret M. Cox,
Theresa Hubal, and Susan Perry-Slay, all have law degrees
– a qualification not held by many of their male
counterparts. Ms. Perry-Slay, who is African-American,
has also alleged that she has been discriminated against
on account of her race, and that this discrimination
is part of a pattern of discrimination by the agency
against its minority employees.
More
About ths case on NJ.com
For a complete copy of the Complaint click
here.
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