Martinez v. Long Island Railroad Company, and Katherine Meilick, individually Case No.: 1:18-cv-03075

New Collective Action filed in the Eastern District of New York
Martinez v. Long Island Railroad Company, and Katherine Meilick, individually Case No.: 1:18-cv-03075

On May 24, 2018, Plaintiff Ms. Martinez filed a civil action lawsuit in United States District Court – Eastern District of New York against Long Island Railroad Company (“the LIRR”) and Katherine Meilick, individually. The complaint alleges as follows:

Plaintiff, who is half African-American and dark-skinned, commenced her employment with the LIRR on or about March 7, 2007, as a senior Human Resource representative. By February 2012, Plaintiff had been promoted twice and ultimately obtained the position of HR business manager. On February 25, 2012, the LIRR promoted Defendant Meilick, Caucasian, to Senior Director of HR. In this capacity, Meilick had final decision-making power with respect to all of the LIRR’s HR policies and over all personnel decisions pertaining to employees in the LIRR’s HR department, including Plaintiff. Within two years, Meilick’s disparate treatment of employees became prominent. For example, at the end of the year, Meilick gave the African American HR employees tiny gifts, while she gave the non-African American HR employees more expensive presents. Then, in December 2014, Ms. Martinez applied for an HR business director position, which she was significantly qualified for; she had received a bachelor’s degree in business management, as well as a master’s degree in human resources management and several HR related certificates. Nonetheless, in February 2015, Meilick promoted a Caucasian, who had received a bachelor of science in accounting and was substantially less-qualified, to this role. Almost one year later, in January 2016, Plaintiff again applied for an HR business director position. However, in violation of the LIRR’s written policy requiring all posted vacancies to be filled within sixty days of being posted, to avoid promoting Plaintiff, Defendants failed to fill the vacancy in the required time as there was no suitable non-African American candidate available to select. Finally, in April 2017, Defendants once again failed to promote Plaintiff to a position for which she was otherwise qualified on the same basis. During her tenure as a Senior Director of HR, Meilick promoted five non-African American HR employees but did not promote a single African American HR employee. Defendants’ failure to promote Plaintiff on two instances as motivated by her race violated the anti-race discrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

If any individual is or has previously been an employee for the Defendants named in the lawsuit and/or has information that may be relevant to this case, please contact Borrelli & Associates, P.L.L.C. as soon as possible through one of our websites, www.employmentlawyernewyork.com or www.516abogado.com, or any of our phone numbers: (516) 248–5550, (516) ABOGADO, or (212) 679–5000.