Two former University Information Services employees filed a lawsuit against Georgetown last Friday, alleging that the university discriminated against UIS employees based on gender, age and race.

Mindy Hicks and Emilya Nudelman, who were laid off with over 19 other UIS employees on May 21, 2003, claimed in their suit that Georgetown laid off disproportionate numbers of older, female and black workers.

Both Hicks and Nudelman worked as systems analysts for Enterprise Information Systems, a division of UIS.

Hicks, who had been a UIS employee for 14 years as of May 2003, said that she was laid off without warning and without a clear reason.

“That morning, I was told that my job was being eliminated `for business reasons’ and that this had `nothing to do with your performance,'” Hicks said in an e-mailed statement. “I did not see this coming. I was given no further explanation of why I had been selected as part of the layoff.”

Hicks said that she felt the termination of her employment reflected discrimination within UIS. She said that based on her observations, women, blacks and older workers did not receive as much respect from UIS management as younger male workers.

“I think I suffered discrimination both in being selected for the layoff and also in being denied the training and experience given to my male co-workers,” she said.

UIS officials referred comment to Georgetown’s Office of Communications.

University spokeswoman Julie Bataille said that Georgetown generally does not comment on cases of pending litigation or situations involving internal personnel matters.

“Georgetown University had legitimate and nondiscriminatory reasons for conducting the layoffs that occurred more than two years ago in University Information Services,” Bataille said. “We will vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations in court.”

According to a press release prepared by Lippman, Semsker and Salb, LLC, the Bethesda-based law firm representing Hicks and Nudelman, before the May 2003 layoffs, over 60 percent of the workforce at UIS was male, yet of the group of workers laid off, about 70 percent were female.

In addition, though approximately 30 percent of the UIS workforce was black, black workers represented over 55 percent of the layoffs, the release stated. About half of the affected workforce was age 40 or older, yet more than 70 percent of those employees fired were older than 40 – an average of five-and-a-half years older than the retained employees.

Micah Salb, the lawyer representing the case, said that his firm’s statistics on the layoffs came from Hicks and Nudelman’s allegations. He said he felt confident that they will be proven accurate in the legal process.

Hicks said that managers at UIS showed favoritism toward male employees, often granting them superior jobs and job training opportunities and thus making them less likely to be laid off.

“In UIS, I experienced a glass ceiling, a glass floor and glass walls,” Hicks said. “I was in a glass box without the opportunity to gain the great training and work opportunities that so many young male co-workers were receiving.”

Salb said that according to his firm’s legal analysis, Hicks and Nudelman have together suffered financial losses of over $1.4 million as a result of the layoffs. He said that they intend to seek damages for emotional distress from the university as well.

“Long-term employees suffer great depression and unhappiness when they lose their jobs unlawfully,” Salb said.

Hicks said that her layoff severely harmed her family both financially and emotionally, forcing her to withdraw her youngest son from his private school and causing her to fear that her family would need to sell their home.

The abruptness of the job loss had a “titanic effect on my emotional and mental well-being,” she said.

Hicks said it was “a miracle” that she found another job before the end of that year.

According to Salb, Nudelman has been unable to find another job since the layoffs.

Salb said that he expects Georgetown to file an answer to the lawsuit in mid-May. He said that little or no activity will occur on the case until July 22, when the initial conference for the case in front of a court is scheduled.

Following the initial conference, both sides will have the opportunity to gather information from each other and from third parties and to analyze the case.

After this period, which Salb said usually lasts six months or longer, both parties will return to court and, unless the court dismisses the case or settles it without a trial, a trial will be held.