NEW YORK: The number of women accusing the financial data and news service company founded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of discrimination has risen from three to 58, with more likely to be added, a lawyer told a judge Thursday.
The disclosure widens the scope of a lawsuit against Bloomberg LP that became a distraction for the mayor during his second term.
Bloomberg is not a defendant in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit claiming discrimination against women who take maternity leave — and he bristled as he was asked about it. He said he had “absolutely no idea,” berated the reporter who asked the question and abruptly ended an unrelated news conference.
Bloomberg resigned as chief executive officer of Bloomberg LP to run for mayor in 2001. He retains a 68 percent stake in the company.
EEOC senior trial attorney Raechel Adams told a judge presiding over the case Thursday that the number of women joining the class-action lawsuit will rise as the EEOC continues to interview 478 women at the Bloomberg agency who have gone on maternity leave since 2002.
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The EEOC said the New York-based company with 9,000 employees engaged in a pattern of demoting women, diminishing their duties and excluding them from job opportunities after they disclosed they were pregnant.
The company has said the allegations are without merit.
Bloomberg lawyer Anna Conlon Aguilar said the company has turned over to the EEOC more than a million pages of data related to Bloomberg employees over the last 10 years. She said the company also planned to turn over e-mails related to women who went on maternity leave.
Attorney William J. Dealy, who represents the original plaintiffs, said his clients were pleased that other women were coming forward.
“They’re encouraged because in unity there’s strength,” he said.
The next hearing in the case was set for September.
Before he became mayor, Bloomberg was the target of a lawsuit by a female sales executive who accused him of sexual harassment while he was Bloomberg’s chief executive.
It claimed Bloomberg and other male managers at the company made “repeated and unwelcome” sexual comments, overtures and gestures, contributing to an offensive, locker-room culture. The suit also alleged that he displayed a discriminatory attitude toward pregnant women and new mothers and that this culture was fostered at the company.
Bloomberg adamantly denied the accusations; the suit was settled in 2000.
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Associated Press Writer Sara Kugler contributed to this story.
