Judge rules for Bloomberg in bias case

A federal judge has dismissed claims that Bloomberg LP engaged in a pattern of discrimination against pregnant women who took maternity leaves.

David Chen of the New York Times writes, “Judge Loretta A. Preska of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled Wednesday that the plaintiffs had failed to present sufficient evidence that discrimination was Bloomberg L.P.’s ‘standard operating procedure, even if there were several isolated instances of individual discrimination.’

“‘‘J’accuse!’ is not enough in court,’ she wrote. ‘Evidence is required.’

“The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a class-action lawsuit in September 2007 on behalf of more than 80 employees of Bloomberg L.P., asserting that the company systematically reduced the pay, demoted or excluded from meetings mothers and pregnant women.

“Mr. Bloomberg, the majority shareholder of the company, was not a defendant, and the alleged discrimination was said to have taken place after Mr. Bloomberg departed to make a successful mayoral bid in 2001. But the suit was a political albatross for the mayor, since the plaintiffs asserted that ‘Michael Bloomberg is responsible for the creation of the systemic, top-down culture of discrimination.'”

Read more here.