Plaintiff law firm Sanford Heisler L.L.P. expanded a putative class action gender discrimination lawsuit filed against Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc. in federal district court in New York on Nov. 5.
The New York-based law firm named four plaintiffs in its original complaint, filed in July.
The four original plaintiffs were all Pennsylvania residents. The newly named plaintiffs are in California, Illinois, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. All are current or former Forest sales representatives.
The suit charges that the New York-based pharmaceuticals firm engaged in "systematic, companywide discriminatory treatment of female employees because of their gender, because they took federally and state-protected maternity leave, and because they became pregnant or served as caregivers."
Sanford Heisler Chairman David Sanford, who is the lead attorney in the litigation, said in a statement: "The amended complaint reflects the unfortunate reality that the first four named plaintiffs comprise just a fraction of the women subjected to gender discrimination at Forest.
"Information about the full extent of the hostile work environment that pregnant women and mothers endure companywide continues to emerge, as more and more women employed by this pharma giant find out that much of what they are subjected to as Forest employees is illegal. We expect this class to be quite large."
The company said in a statement, "We continue to believe these claims have no merit and will defend ourselves vigorously."
Judy Greenwald writes for Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
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