Bidness Etc - Novartis Accused Of Sexual Discrimination

Novartis sexually discriminates female workers by giving them fewer growth opportunities

Novartis, the popular pharmaceutical company is on an inconsistent stage now where a lawsuit has been filed against them by their former employees. According to the lawsuit, a class action will also be taken against the company.

The company has been accused of discriminating against women. The women employees at Novartis claimed that on a regular basis they were denied a pay scale on par with the men in the organization. Moreover, they were not given any promotion or monetary rewards on their performance.

This is not the first time when Novartis is found to be involved in such an activity. Five years ago the company was accused of gender discrimination by some of the female sales workers at the organization. The company was liable to pay an amount of $152.5 million back then. Novartis has now ignited a similar controversy all over again.

Basically, this lawsuit has been filed by two ladies who primarily worked on the Alcon eye-care products segment. They accused the company of many the environment dominated by the opposite gender and also accused them of making the environment fairly hostile to the women working in the office. Moreover, they also limited the opportunities of growth for women employees restricting them from opting for executive positions. The case has been filed in the district of New York.

According to the petition filed. At Novartis, less than 15% of the women have occupied position as the senior executive management which surely indicates that the company is involved in gender discrimination. Moreover, women are never given their destined rights even if they are capable and have the talent.

Even when the performances of workers are evaluated at Novartis, women are downgraded in terms of performance. When the performance reaches the executive board, they usually tend to manipulate it since the executive leadership is filled with male members.

However, Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) defends itself by saying that it ensures a healthy working environment and does not discriminate on the basis of the gender. The spokeswoman at Novartis stated: “deeply committed to equal employment opportunity for all employees and to preventing discrimination.” Moreover, they also accused the employees who have filed the lawsuit to be involved in ill activities that violated the company’s code of conduct. They were terminated due to the “serious violations”.

Hence, in a nutshell, Novartis is again encountering a similar issue which can cause them to lose a hefty amount. It is too early to predict whether the company was involved in discrimination