Arab American employee gets $400,000 settlement in discrimination suit 

posted on: May 5, 2016

PATERSON, NJ — City officials have approved a $400,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed by a municipal employee who claimed she was discriminated against by co-workers and supervisors because of her Arabic and Muslim heritage.

The employee, Montaha Deeb, also has been a central figure in the controversy that has engulfed the city’s Board of Adjustment for the past year. Her ouster as chairperson of the zoning board last summer prompted two of her Muslim colleagues on the board to boycott its meetings, bringing its business to a virtual standstill.

In her lawsuit, Deeb said other city employees harassed her because of her cultural background and that high-ranking officials took no action when she lodged complaints about mistreatment. Deeb also said her supervisors denied her requests to have her lunch hour changed during the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan, when the smell of other employees’ food made her feel ill.

Deeb also alleged that she took a $5,000 pay cut and was demoted from her position as fiscal analyst in the community development department by former mayor Jeffery Jones’ administration because of her connection to Councilman Kenneth Morris, Jones’ political adversary.

Deeb’s lawsuit contained a wide range of other allegations of mistreatment, including exclusion from departmental parties, name-calling and denials of vacation requests.

The case represented the fourth settlement of lawsuits filed by employees against the city’s former community development director, Lanisha Makle. The city has agreed to pay $877,000 in settlements in those four cases, a tab that does not include the fees Paterson paid to the private law firms that handled the complaints.

Those settlements include $312,000 to former economic development director Brian Sweeney who was fired while working for Makle, $97,000 to clerical worker Joan Chisolm who said Makle tried to fire her because Chisolm testified against Makle in the 2011 overtime hearings and $68,000 to former urban enterprise zone director Janice Northrup who said she was mistreated by the Jones administration because she is white.

Deeb could not be reached for comment on the settlement of her case. The council approved the $400,000 deal at its meeting on Tuesday night.

Morris said Deeb’s complaints should have been addressed by the Jones administration without litigation. “If we had the proper personnel policies in place this would have never happened,” Morris said. “This should have been handled internally.”

When asked about the size of Deeb’s settlement, Morris said, “It was the result of the potential exposure to the city. We try to dispose of these cases with the least financial harm to the taxpayers.”
Source: www.northjersey.com