E-Newsletter: October 2017
Civil Rights and Personal Injury and General Practice Law Firm, Dedicated to Social Justice
The Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington is a well-respected litigation firm with an office in Hempstead, Long Island. Our focus is primarily in the area of civil rights, voting rights, employment discrimination, police misconduct, personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death and criminal law. However, the Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington is a full- service law firm handling matters in numerous areas of law and providing a wide range of services from contract formation to litigation and trial practice.
RECENT VERDICTS AND SETTLEMENTS
$7.75 million- Civil Rights and wrongful death action brought by the family of deceased
$4.7 million- Repeated verbal and physical assaults on Yemeni-American employee, while supervisor failed to protect employee and discipline the assailant
$1.277 million- Race based attack and serious injury by violent acts against Plaintiffs, who were lured to an isolated warehouse
$2.8 million- Wrongful death, products liability case involving a tow motor accident at a sewage treatment plant
AT THE FIRM
Female Town of Hempstead Highway Department Employee Files Lawsuit Against Employer, Claiming She Was Paid Less Than Her Male Colleagues And Denied Promotions
Fred Brewington of The Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington held a press conference at his office on September 15 to announce that he has filed a $3 million lawsuit on behalf of Debra Fee, an employee with the Town of Hempstead Highway Department. Ms. Fee claims that, despite her longstanding track record as an exemplary employee, she was never promoted or received a raise, while her male counterparts who were less experienced and less tenured than Ms. Fee were paid more and placed in higher positions.
Ms. Fee, who has been with the town’s Highway Department since 2011, was given full-time employment as a Grade 9 employee after her first five years of employment. However, some of her male co-workers were designated Grade 14 or higher, although they started a few years after Ms. Fee joined the Highway Department. In 2009, she was assigned to the storeroom on a full-time basis but designated only as a seasonal employee; her male colleagues were employed full-time.
In September 2016, Ms. Fee applied for a change in her title to Storeyard Crew Chief. The following month, the town denied her request. That same month, the Defendant, Antonio Fanizzi, told her that Defendant Thomas Toscano ordered her to join the “road crew,” which Ms. Fee never did before. As a member of the road crew, she had to ride in a highway truck and engage in hard physical labor. The work began to take a toll on her physical and emotional health.
Mr. Toscano told Ms. Fee that she was reassigned to the road crew because of her request to have her title changed and that she was working out of title. This contradicts what was written in a letter from Civil Service Commission Executive Director Robert Schmidt which stated she was working within her title. Because of the conflicting information she received by her superiors and decision makers, Ms. Fee was subjected to retaliation and abuse and her requests for promotions and pay raises were denied.
Ms. Fee is suing under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Fourteenth Amendment, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, New York Human Rights Law and Nassau County Human Rights Law. Claims include economic losses and psychological injury, distress, pain, suffering, loss of self-esteem, self-doubt, disgrace, public humiliation, embarrassment, inconvenience, anxiety and frustration.
A copy of the complaint can be read here.
556 Peninsula Blvd., Hempstead, New York 11550 | Phone: 516-489-6959 | Fax: 516-489-6958
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