By Kevin McCauley
New Jersey’s Chamber of Commerce is using New York’s 5W Public Relations to deal with a sexual discrimination and harassment complaint filed Oct 7 in Mercer County Court by former VP business development Carol Gabel.
The complaint calls the Chamber an “old boys’ club” of long lunches, golf outings, strip club visits, heavy drinking and raunchy treatment of women.
“This woman put up with a really intolerable work environment for a long time and tried everything she could to resolve it absent litigation," said Gina Mendola Longarzo, a lawyer for Gabel, in the Oct. 21 Star-Ledger. "But when they fired her when she was out on disability, she had no choice."
5W CEO Ronn Torossian told the S-L that though the Chamber is confident the suit has no merit, it take all allegations very seriously and has launched an internal inquiry into the matter.
Gable claims her position at the Chamber was eliminated in March to punish her for speaking up against the alleged harassment.
She is looking for damages related to lost pay, benefits, suffering and legal fees.
Torossian could not be reached for comment about how his New York-based firm got involved in the Garden State legal squabble.
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