NJ Transit settles discrimination suits with 2 employees for $3.2M

NJ Transit has agreed to settle racial discrimination and retaliation lawsuits brought by two employees, including a woman who successfully sued the agency for racial discrimination in 2014 — for a total of $3.2 million.

NJ Transit board members approved the two settlements on Monday with Pia Wilson and Jose Rivera, who contended they were discriminated against and suffered retaliation on the job. NJ Transit will pay a total of $3.2 million to the plaintiffs, said their attorneys.

Wilson was one of six employees who successfully sued the state transit agency for racial discrimination in a June 2016 case that was settled for $3.65 million. The lawsuit that was settled Monday was filed in January 2017 when Wilson charged she was being retaliated against for filing and winning her original lawsuit.

That retaliation included being moved from a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job at NJ Transit headquarters in Newark to a Kearny warehouse, where she had to report to work at 6:30 a.m. and work 12-hour days without overtime, she claimed. Three people who worked for her were either fired or retired and then not allowed to be replaced, she said.

Wilson left the agency in January 2018 because the “retaliation was literally making her sick,” said Nancy Erika Smith, her attorney.

After the settlement agreement was reached, Wilson, “hopes the culture changes” at NJ Transit because she “still has friends working there,” Smith said.

NJ Transit officials said they have implemented new harassment and discrimination training for employees and reduced a backlog of complaints waiting to be investigated.

“She has described one world for African-American employees and one world for politically connected white employees,” Smith said. “It’s incredibly disturbing and she hopes it will end this time.”

Smith testified about Wilson’s first lawsuit during a 2016 Joint Legislative Oversight Committee hearing about NJ Transit, saying that Wilson’s request to change the system to end discrimination and harassment went nowhere.

“They lost two long time incredibly dedicated, knowledgeable employees because of discrimination,” Smith said.

She blamed “bad executives.. a lot of them were (politically) appointed by former Gov. Chris Christie, who banded together against anyone who complained,” Smith said. “Some of them are gone.”

Rivera sued in December 2016, contending he was retaliated against because, as Wilson’s boss, he was deposed in her first suit. Retaliation by a supervisor who was also named in the Wilson case included denying Rivera opportunities for promotion, taking away job responsibilities and staff and “attacking’ his productivity, court papers said. He was also paid two to three levels below what his white counterparts were paid, the suit claimed.

Rivera complained to NJ Transit’s Human Resources and Equal Employment Opportunity officials but action was not taken and retaliation continued after the first Wilson suit was settled, he said.

“It’s been an ongoing, hard-fought case,” said Ravi Sattiraju, Rivera’s attorney. “We hope for the sake of the workers and the public that things get better and leadership starts taking employee and workers right more seriously and that more oversight is provided by other branches of government.”

He criticized the state for a “scorched earth policy” that resulted in the state “spending a fortune” to fight a case that should have been resolved years ago, he said. Rivera is still employed at NJ Transit.

The state spent $133,243 in the Wilson case and $54,868 on the Rivera case for outside attorneys to represent it in 2019 and 2020 alone, according to Attorney General budget statistics.

“The money could have been better spent,” Sattiraju said. “This situation needs to improve.”

While not speaking about the two cases, NJ Transit officials said improvements have been made in investigating and closing employee complaints. Training of managers and workers about harassment and discrimination has increased.

“It’s best...to nip it (by) adding well trained management. It has to come from the top,” said Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit CEO and President. “We take every compliant seriously and generally we see the numbers coming down.”

Some of those efforts include diversity and harassment training done in person or online for employees, he said.

“It’s getting people out to do the training to mid level and supervisory management to make sure they embrace it and understand the importance,” Corbett said. “It’s going out to employees, doing training online and in person and make sure the unions work with us.”

In August, HR officials detailed enhanced training that started this fall covering topics including preventing discrimination and harassment, avoidance of retaliation, diversity, inclusion, sensitivity, workplace violence prevention, unconscious bias, and creating a positive work environment.

Board member James D. Adams asked if board members could take part in that online training.

“I encourage him and other board members to please take a more role in monitoring HR and EEO and the lawsuits against NJ Transit,” Smith said. “That could really change things.”

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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.

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