Ousted WeWork CEO sued by former chief of staff for pregnancy discrimination

Anthony Noto, Reporter - New York Business JournalNov 1, 2019, 7:43am EDT Updated: Nov 1, 2019, 10:10am EDT

WeWork founder and former CEO Adam Neumann is being sued by his former chief of staff.

Medina Bardhi, who worked for Neumann while he was chief executive at troubled WeWork, is alleging claims of pregnancy discrimination, unequal pay and gender discrimination.

In addition to Neumann, parent company The We Co. and WeWork’s Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Berrent are also named in the complaint.

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WeWork adds first woman to board of directors Law firm Wigdor LLP is handling legal matters for Bardhi.

Bardhi filed the complaint on behalf of herself and a class of “similarly situated female WeWork employees,” according to the law firm.

The class action complaint was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Bardhi worked at WeWork for more than five years. During her tenure, she gave birth to two children while serving as Neumann’s chief of staff.

Per the complaint:

Like clockwork, each time Ms. Bardhi returned to work following her maternity leave, WeWork’s management transparently and systematically marginalized and discriminated against her by drastically and materially reducing her role and/or demoting her outright. Moreover, as alleged, each time Ms. Bardhi disclosed her pregnancy to Mr. Neumann, WeWork began to search for a permanent replacement for Ms. Bardhi (and not merely temporary coverage while she was on legally protected leave), and ultimately replaced her with less-experienced and under-qualified males.
The class action complaint also alleges that Neumann repeatedly disparaged and characterized Bardhi’s maternity leave as “retirement” and “vacation” — comments Bardhi says were often made in the presence of other WeWork executives as well as fellow pregnant employees or new mothers.

Bardhi also alleges that the male employee who replaced her as chief of staff while she was on maternity leave received a salary that was nearly three times as much as what she was earning for performing the same work. She also claimed that WeWork systematically pays women less than equally or lesser-qualified male peers.

Bardhi was terminated earlier this month, on Oct. 2, just weeks before Tokyo conglomerate SoftBank bought a majority of WeWork for $1.7 billion. Neumann, as a result of the deal, was required to leave the company altogether.

A WeWork spokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

Anthony Noto is a multimedia journalist focused on venture capital and Silicon Alley startups. Based in New York for the Business Journals, he previously was a reporter at SourceMedia and The Deal LLC. He is a graduate of Rutgers University.

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