Pregnant sales person claims layoff was pretexual reason for termination

NEW ORLEANS - A radiology sales specialist has filed a lawsuit against her employer that claims a new supervisor terminated her for pretextual reasons and was ultimately committing gender and pregnancy discrimination.

Joy Shantay Kruebbe filed suit against Hologic Inc. on Feb. 1 in federal court in New Orleans.

Kruebbe was hired by the defendant as a radiology sales specialist in 2009 to take over an underperforming territory. At the end of 2009, she was given a positive performance review by her manager, who left the region soon after the review.

The new supervisor issued Kruebbe a letter of concern in January 2010, the suit claims. With the letter, Kruebbe was placed in a 90 day improvement period, with part of the time occurring during her maternity leave.

Kruebbe states that this was a pretext for discrimination and a precedent for ultimately terminating her due to sex and pregnancy.

She complained to a human resources manager about the discrimination and was allowed to complete part of the improvement period when she returned from maternity, the suit states.

However, Kruebbe was not allowed to return to her position upon her return from maternity leave because she was laid off allegedly due to realignment. Kruebbe argues that her duties were reassigned to a male employee.

The defendant is accused of recklessly disregarding Kruebbe's rights and engaging in sex and pregnancy discrimination.

The plaintiff is asking the court for an award of damages for back pay, loss of earning capacity, pecuniary losses, emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of reputation, loss of enjoyment of life, interest, punitive damages, court costs and attorney's fees.

Kruebbe is represented by New Orleans attorney William M. McGoey. A jury trial is requested.

U.S. District Judge Martin L. C. Feldman is assigned to the case.

Case No. 2:12-cv-00333