Albuja v. National Broadcasting Co. Universal

851 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2012 WL 983566, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40971, 114 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1269
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 16, 2012
DocketNo. 10 Civ. 3126 (VM)
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 851 F. Supp. 2d 599 (Albuja v. National Broadcasting Co. Universal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Albuja v. National Broadcasting Co. Universal, 851 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2012 WL 983566, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40971, 114 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1269 (S.D.N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

VICTOR MARRERO, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Danny Albuja, Glen Boyd and Gentle Benjamin (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) bring this employment discrimination suit against defendant National Broadcasting Company Universal, Inc. (“NBCU”) under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (“ § 1981”), New York State Human Rights Law, N.Y. Exec. Law § 290 et seq. (“NYSHRL”), and New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”), N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-107 et seq. Plaintiffs allege that they experienced racial discrimination while employed by Defendant as “daily hires” in its New York Media Operations Center (the “NYMOC”). Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that they received disparate treatment relative to “Caucasian” co-workers with respect to scheduling, training opportunities, opportunities for permanent positions, and their ultimate termination when the NYMOC was closed. Now before the Court is NBCU’s motion for summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND1

A. PLAINTIFFS’ EMPLOYMENT AT NBCU

Plaintiffs Albuja, who is Hispanic, and Boyd, an African-American man, each be[603]*603gan working for NBCU in December of 1995. Benjamin, who is also African-American, began his career at NBCU in December of 1998. Plaintiffs were “daily hires,” a term defined in the applicable collective bargaining agreement as an at-will, shift employee. Daily hires are a separate class of employees from “permanent staff employees,” and the terms of the two groups’ employment are distinct. Under the express terms of the relevant collective bargaining agreement, daily hires have no entitlement to particular shifts or to receive severance payments upon termination and, should NBCU find it necessary to terminate daily hire positions, it has no obligation to lay off daily hires using any particular procedure. Daily hires are not guaranteed to be scheduled for any number of hours per week and are paid by the hour. Plaintiffs’ pay-grade, as daily hires working in the NY-MOC, was classified as “Group 5.”

The primary function of the NYMOC was to “ingest” content for the NBCU television networks. Seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day, employees in the NYMOC fed videotapes into machines that converted those tapes into data files that were then broadcasted during NBCU television programming. Plaintiffs’ duties included loading video of commercials and programs into such machines, playback editing, organizing layouts, and performing quality control tasks. These were the same basic duties as performed by permanent staff employees at the NYMOC.

In the spring of 2009, Plaintiffs were laid off when NBCU made the business decision to close the NYMOC and consolidate its operations with those of an existing facility in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (the “ECMOC”). Plaintiffs received no severance from NBCU and little notice of their termination and the NYMOC closure.

B. ALLEGED INSTANCES OF DISCRIMINATION

1. Alleged Discrimination in Scheduling

Plaintiff Boyd alleges that he was discriminated against during his employment at the NYMOC because he was consistently scheduled to work overnight shifts though Caucasian employees were scheduled during daytime shifts. The other daily hire typically assigned to overnight shifts was Marc Cheseborough, who is also African-American.

Dissatisfied with his schedule, Boyd requested morning or daytime shifts from NYMOC manager Jason Kornweiss (“Kornweiss”) and scheduling coordinator Carole Franks (“Franks”). According to [604]*604Franks, Boyd was consistently assigned overnight shifts to accommodate his other request that he be scheduled to work forty hours each week.

Plaintiff Benjamin worked every weekend during his tenure at the NYMOC. On numerous occasions, Benjamin spoke with Franks and requested weekends off. Franks responded that the weekend shifts were the only shifts available.

Prior to 2006, Plaintiff Albuja typically worked forty hours each week at the NY-MOC. At some point in or subsequent to 2006, Albuja’s hours and responsibilities, such as training new NYMOC employees or working for specific content departments, were diminished. Though Albuja complained about his reduction in hours to NYMOC manager Justin Beaudin (“Beau-din”), who succeeded Kornweiss in that position in 2008, there is testimony that Caucasian daily hires were given the first opportunities when additional shifts became available. At the time Albuja was requesting additional hours, one daily hire, a Caucasian man named Howard Suss (“Suss”), was employed full time in the NBCU Editing Department and regularly scheduled to work in the NYMOC for overtime compensation.

Plaintiffs also point out that when an NYMOC supervisor, Suzanne Langwell (“Langwell”), took an extended vacation, a Caucasian daily hire, Dan Cox (“Cox”), was selected as a substitute. Cox had less experience at the NYMOC than Plaintiffs and Cox received an increase in pay, to “Group 7,” during his service as a substitute supervisor.

2. Alleged Discrimination in Training Opportunities

Plaintiffs allege that they were, denied opportunities to train in departments of NBCU’s broadcast operation other than the NYMOC, although other daily hire employees, who were Caucasian and less experienced than Plaintiffs, were afforded such opportunities. In particular, Albuja requested training in a department referred to as “Skypath and Transmission.” A position in the Skypath and Transmission department, after training, carried with it a paygrade of Group 7. Albuja’s request was denied, but daily hire employee Suss was assigned to train in the Sky-path and Transmission department, though he did not request such training. Suss was not, however, assigned to that department after his training because he informed managers that he would prefer to work in the NYMOC. More generally, Plaintiffs also requested training in various other departments at NBCU, including those dedicated to “Commercial Sign-In,” “Master Control,” and “Integrated Control.” Though Caucasian daily hires were provided with opportunities to train in these departments, Plaintiffs were not.

3. Alleged Discrimination in Opportunities for Permanent Positions

Beginning in late 2005, Boyd began filling in for a permanent staff employee, Matthew Kolaso (“Kolaso”), who had taken a medical leave of absence. Though Boyd performed Kolaso’s duties for almost a year, a Caucasian daily hire employee was elevated to the permanent staff to replace Kolaso when his medical problems ultimately forced him to retire.

In 2007, NBCU launched a program called “NBC2GO,” which supplied content to a live video-over-cell-phone service called Media Flow. Opening NBC2GO created new job opportunities within NBCU. NBCU posted openings with NBC2GO on an internal website and accepted electronic applications through that website. Plaintiffs dispute NBCU’s statement that applications for NBC2GO were required to be submitted electronically and NBCU has produced no documentary evidence of such

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851 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2012 WL 983566, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40971, 114 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/albuja-v-national-broadcasting-co-universal-nysd-2012.