Sanofi-Aventis Gender Discrimination Class Action

Case name: Bellifemine, et al. v. Sanofi-Aventis, et al.

Filed in: [U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York]

Docket: [Case No.: 107CV02207]

Case Summary

In 2007, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed a nationwide class complaint on behalf of current and former sales representatives employed by Sanofi-Aventis, alleging gender discrimination pursuant to Title VII of The Civil Rights Act.

The Complaint alleged that French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, headquartered in New Jersey, routinely and systematically engaged in gender discrimination in hiring, performance evaluation, promotions, and salary. As a result, the company regularly offered advantages to male employees not given to women. Female employees were also regularly subjected to gender hostility and sexual harassment in the workplace, the Complaint said.

The settlement, in 2009, produced more than $15 million in monetary benefits, plus the $13.4 million reverberating effect of a $2 million pay equity adjustment over a five-year period.