There was a new development yesterday in the long-running gender bias lawsuit against KPMG, in which a group of current and former female advisory and tax professionals have accused the firm of gender, pay, and promotion discrimination, as well as condoning sexual harassment.<\/p>\n
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs filed a motion<\/a> on Nov. 27 that asked a New York federal court to certify their class and collective action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s filings demonstrate pervasive gender discrimination against women at KPMG, where women are underpaid and underpromoted,\u201d Kate Mueting, a partner and co-chair of the Title VII practice in Sanford Heisler Sharp\u2019s Washington, DC, office and lead attorney for KPMG\u2019s female plaintiffs, said in a statement.<\/p>\n KPMG also filed a motion in opposition of the plaintiffs\u2019 request for class and collective action certification.<\/p>\n Back in 2011, Donna Kassman, a former KPMG senior manager, filed a $350 million lawsuit against the firm<\/a> alleging \u201crelentless gender discrimination and harassment.\u201d In addition, she claimed that despite speaking up, the firm had \u201cno interest in remedying the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, five other women\u2014<\/strong>Tina Butler, Cheryl Charity, Heather Inman, Nancy Jones, and Carol Murray\u2014were added to the class-action lawsuit as named plaintiffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n The plaintiffs allege that KPMG\u2019s pay and promotion practices violate the disparate impact provisions of Title VII and the New York Human Rights Law, New York City Human Rights Law, and the New York Equal Pay Law. The female KPMG workers also claim that \u201cKPMG engages in a pattern or practice of intentional discrimination against women (disparate treatment) in violation of Title VII and New York law,\u201d the motion states.<\/p>\n [The plaintiffs] seek to certify a class of female Associates, Senior Associates, Managers, Senior Managers\/Directors, and Managing Directors employed within KPMG\u2019s Tax and Advisory functions between October 30, 2009 through the date of judgment. In addition, Plaintiff Kassman seeks to certify a class of the same group of employees employed by KPMG in the state of New York from June 2, 2008 through the date of judgment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The motion seeks certification of the plaintiffs\u2019 Title VII claims. The proposed Title VII class is projected to include more than 10,000 women, according to the motion.<\/p>\n The other piece to the motion is the final certification of the Equal Pay Act collective. In October 2014<\/a>, 9,000 women\u2014both past and present Klynveldians\u2014were sent a court-ordered notice that welcomed them to join the collective action challenging pay discrimination at KPMG. Of those 9,000, 1,112 responded to the notice, allowing them to join the Equal Pay Act collective.<\/p>\n The motion states:<\/p>\n [A] small cadre of senior leaders at KPMG ultimately control all pay decisions. According to its written policies, KPMG purports to base compensation on performance, as well as on an employee\u2019s job level, work experience in the field, time in job, education, and geography. As Plaintiffs will demonstrate, there is another, unstated factor: gender.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In a statement, KPMG spokesperson Manuel Goncalves said the plantiffs\u2019 accusations are \u201cwithout merit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not comment on pending litigation other than to note that plaintiffs\u2019 claims are without merit, and KPMG will continue to vigorously defend itself. As we have noted previously, KPMG is committed to the advancement of women throughout the organization, and is recognized as a leader for its strong record of supporting women in the workplace. Diversity and inclusion have long been priorities for the firm, and are woven into our culture and everything we do. We continue to believe that the allegations are not at all representative of the overwhelmingly vast majority of women\u2019s experiences at KPMG.\u00a0Instead, plaintiffs\u2019 counsel refer to the complaints lodged while ignoring the robust investigations of those complaints and sanctions addressing any misbehavior.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But the plaintiffs paint a different picture of how women are slower to move up the ranks at KPMG than men. They allege that, although women are hired as associates at nearly the same rate as men, females represent only about one-fourth of the managing directors and less than one-fifth of the partners at KPMG. Based on 2016 KPMG data, the motion included the percentage of women who held six positions within the firm:<\/p>\n According to the plaintiffs, a committee of KPMG\u2019s Woman\u2019s Advisory Board acknowledged the flaws in the firm\u2019s promotion process, noting that women face \u201cunclear promotion paths\u201d and \u201ccareer paths for managers is unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n Kathy Hannon, the National Managing Partner of Diversity and Corporate Responsibility, acknowledged in 2011 that \u201c[w]omen at KPMG are beginning to say that KPMG is not serious about diversity\u201d and that \u201cwhat we don\u2019t have are sponsors \u2013 advocates for women when an opportunity arises and their name is put up for consideration.\u201d She has also acknowledged that \u201ceven though nearly half our professionals are women, only 11.6% hold leadership roles\u201d and that \u201cfemale senior managers feel stagnated.\u201d Despite admitting in 2011 that the firm had received a \u201cwake-up call\u201d to improve gender representation \u201cin every practice and office, in the partnership and in leadership roles,\u201d KPMG has elected not to wake up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The plaintiffs also claim that women\u2019s total compensation is 2.7% less than men\u2019s in KPMG\u2019s tax practice on average and 2.8% less in the firm\u2019s advisory practice.<\/p>\n The motion states that KPMG acknowledged as early as 2009 that \u201ccompensation disparities still exist for women.\u201d<\/p>\n A presentation by the firm-wide Women\u2019s Inclusion Initiative in 2011 noted that \u201cKPMG\u2019s current record of retaining, promoting, and providing meaningful representation of females in leadership is insufficient to meet our clients\u2019 and our own expectations,\u201d and \u201cour failure to provide succession planning that includes female partners is expected to create a long term competitive disadvantage.\u201d The same presentation acknowledged that female employees often express frustration with pay equity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The motion also details alleged sexual harassment by men at KPMG toward women employees.<\/p>\n The evidence \u2026 includes testimony from Named and Opt-In Plaintiffs; internal complaints by female employees of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and hostile work environment submitted to KPMG\u2019s centralized Human Resources and Ethics & Compliance departments during the discovery period; concerns articulated by women in annual employee surveys and exit interviews; and other firm emails and records reflecting persistent biases and systemic problems for women.<\/p>\n This constellation of evidence shows that KPMG tolerates, condones, and facilitates a hostile \u201cboys\u2019 club\u201d culture that is rife with gender bias and sexual harassment, that KPMG fails to respond appropriately to complaints by female employees, and that complaining does not lead to remedies, but rather to retaliation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some of the examples contained in the motion are pretty icky and are pretty similar to other sexual harassment allegations from former female employees at other Big 4 firms (not once<\/a> but twice<\/a> at EY and at Deloitte<\/a>).<\/p>\n And it gets worse:<\/p>\n Even more disturbingly, Class members have reported criminal sexual assault, including rape and attempted rape by male KPMG co-workers at work events. \u2026 (during a Tax Skills Seminar a male Tax Senior Associate made unwanted sexual advances towards two female Tax Associates; and grabbed one of the female Tax Associates by the neck, pushed her into the corner, tried to kiss her, and refused to leave her hotel room until she screamed). \u2026<\/p>\n (after a KPMG training seminar, a male Associate groped two female Associates\u2019 breasts beneath their blouses while sitting in between them in a car; another male associate told the police that the way the victims were dressed made it easy for accidents to happen). \u2026<\/p>\n (a female Advisory Associate was raped by a male Associate who had previously barged in on her using the restroom and said, \u201cwhen are we going to fu*k?\u201d). This widespread evidence that women are routinely mistreated, and even assaulted, at work events provides further proof that women are working within a culture of permissive harassment and intentional discrimination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The plaintiffs contend that KPMG often allows sexual harassment to go unpunished, enabling the behavior to continue, often by the same individuals.<\/p>\n Common evidence produced from KPMG\u2019s centralized complaint database establishes that there have been numerous complaints of sexual harassment, often characterized as simply a \u201clack of professionalism\u201d rather than harassment and at least three reported complaints of criminal sexual assault and rape against women in Class positions.<\/p>\n KPMG acknowledges that it does not apply standardized sanctions in response to substantiated complaints. Instead, KPMG routinely takes action that is woefully inadequate. The widespread pattern at KPMG is to protect the men who engage in these behaviors and merely give them a slap on the wrist (if that). As a result, the sexual harassment remains wholly unaddressed and continues. For instance, even though a male KPMG Advisory Manager had previously been reprimanded for \u201csimilar issues,\u201d KPMG merely issued a written warning instructing him to take a one-hour online course after his repeated misconduct, including determining that on multiple occasions at work the Manager shared with his coworkers photos of young women he was \u201cchecking out,\u201d explicit personal emails, and videos of scantily clothed women dancing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cDespite the many gains women have made in the workplace, the record in this case shows that the deck continues to be stacked against them,\u201d said Kelly Dermody, chair of the Employment Practice Group at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, and co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs.\u00a0\u201cChange will only be possible through the collective resistance of the brave women who have come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There was a new development yesterday in the long-running gender bias lawsuit against KPMG, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314068,"featured_media":1000896440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[11878,257,10629,12831,13715,12830,591,600,3229],"class_list":["post-1000003223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kpmg","tag-class-action","tag-compensation","tag-controversies","tag-donna-kassman-v-kpmg","tag-featured","tag-gender-discrimination","tag-kpmg","tag-lawsuits","tag-sexual-harassment"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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