On Monday, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, an ex-employee of B. Braun Medical alleged that he experienced discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation while working for a subsidiary of B. Braun, Central Admixture Pharmacy Services (CAPS), in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The plaintiff alleged that he worked as a Senior Pharmaceutical Technician at CAPS. In this role, he asserted that he experienced widespread discrimination derived from stereotypes concerning the plaintiff’s identification as a homosexual. Specific acts of discrimination included a critique of his voice tone; a public announcement by his supervisor that he partook in a medication used to treat HIV; and male coworkers mocking his sexual orientation by “blowing kisses at (the plaintiff), making penis jokes…and making other offensive and uninvited sexual comments…”
The ex-technician of the defendant’s pharmacy purported that he reported these issues to his supervisor, who, in lieu of failing to act to reduce the discrimination, sent the plaintiff to Human Resources for disciplinary measures. The pleadings further laid out how six months after the initial intervention by Human Resources, a disagreement between the plaintiff and other pharmacy staffers about the truthfulness of whether the plaintiff was paying presumptively heterosexual male staff to initiate romantic interactions, resulted in the plaintiff being terminated due to the defendant averring that the work environment was no longer safe for the plaintiff.
The plaintiff asserted that the aforementioned facts establish that the defendant established a “gender and sex hostile and offensive work environment” while concurrently retaliating via termination against the plaintiff because of his reporting of the claimed harassment and discriminatory management practices in direct violation of Title VII. The ex-employee of the defendant seeks back-pay, restoration to the original job with no loss in seniority, court costs, attorney’s fees, compensatory damages for “pain and suffering, physical and emotional distress, and severe emotional trauma,” an injunction enjoining future illegal discriminatory practices, and a declaratory judgment labeling the defendant’s actions as unlawful under Title VII.
The plaintiff is represented by Hahalis & Kounoupis, P.C.
