Manager Says BMW Pays Women Less

HACKENSACK, N.J. (CN) - A manager claims that BMW fired her after she discovered, and reported, "gender-related pay inequities." Lindsay Pebody, who worked for BMW for more than 10 years, says she was fired after the company blew off her complaints and she "engaged in her own investigation to determine the salaries of her comparators."

Pebody was head of marketing strategy and planning and head of e-marketing, she says in her complaint in Bergen County Court.

She says that in 2009, after working for BMW for more than 10 years, she sent an e-mail to Human Resources "detailing issues with her salary that she had just become aware of."

The company's response, she says, "was so unsatisfactory that [she] engaged in her own investigation to determine the salaries of her comparators."

Pebody says she "uncovered that [BMW] engaged in a pattern and practice of gender discrimination," at which point she "retained counsel and made formal complaints" of the practices, as well as "other illegal acts occurring at the workplace."

BMW retaliated by firing her in January 2011, Pebody says. She seeks damages for gender discrimination, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract.

She is represented by Ty Hyderally of Montclair, N.J.

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