The Executive Director, Candace Newman, is suing Live Nation after claiming the company retaliated against her recent complaints regarding race and gender discrimination by placing her on furlough status.
Newman feels Live Nation used the coronavirus staff-related reductions as an excuse to cut her loose and says, her “case epitomizes the issue at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement — systemic racism.”
A lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday accuses the company of fostering “a toxic work environment of harassment, discrimination, and retaliating against employees, like Plaintiff, who complain about a lack of diversity and race discrimination in the workplace” even though “over half of the Live Nation artist are Black.”
Within the suit, Newman claims her wrongful termination violates the Fair Employment and Housing Act, however, the company says the claim is baseless because Newman was not fired.
“We were surprised by Ms. Newman’s claim of wrongful termination, as she is still an employee at Live Nation,” the company said. “With concerts on pause due to the pandemic, we, unfortunately, had to implement furloughs across our company, most heavily impacting our concerts division, but our furloughed staff are still valued employees, receiving healthcare and other benefits.”
Although they cannot comment on specifics, the company says they would like to be “clear that any allegations of bias and discrimination in Ms. Newman’s claims are completely unfounded. Live Nation is fully committed to being an anti-racist and equitable organization and we continuously strive to foster an environment where employees feel comfortable and empowered.”
Among other things, Live Nation is known for encompassing touring and ticketing and corporate sponsorships. Newman has been employed with the company for 11 years and started as an executive assistant before being promoted to director of U.S. concerts and touring last year, Variety reports.
Court documents also allege that Newman received harsher criticism than her non-black and/or male colleagues. When Newman felt she could no longer tolerate the company’s unfair treatment, she chose to make a formal complaint and hired counsel to help protect her rights. But then Live Nation blatantly and maliciously countered her argument claiming Newman actually created a “hostile work environment” and terminated her employment under the guise of a “furlough” related to the pandemic.
According to Newman’s suit, she helped bring Toni Braxton to the company, as well as tours for Santana, the Backstreet Boys, and David Blaine. She also helped book “venues which in some instances generated an income of upwards of $100 million,” but that timespan upon which the metric was based is vague.
Newman created the company’s first woman’s resource group in 2015, called Empower Network, which garnered more than 300 Live Nation and Ticketmaster employees as members. The network was soon dismantled when she was instructed by a Caucasian SVP to take it down, Newman’s lawyer stated. According to the SVP, resource groups are for VP level employees and above. However, the suit describes a “lack of representation of employees of color in those positions.”
Furthermore, the suit points at a 2016 performance memo Newman received from two immediate supervisors, who are described as two white males that evaluated her job performance as sub-standard and threatened to fire her. Apparently, Newman says she never had a problem brought to her attention before the memo. Newman says both males started below her on the employee totem pole but had gotten fast-tracked promotions to become her supervisors. She was the only Black person working in the touring division at that time.
To make matters worse, Newman also discovered she was being paid one-third to 40% less than other non-Black or male employees at her same director level. When she brought it to the attention of CEO Michael Rapino, her pay was raised.
It was in September of 2019 that she received a “final written warning” from Live Nation for the time she complained about a co-worker drinking and became belligerent at a company party and then the time a new hire complained about her.
Newman brought on her suit in February out of fear that she would be unfairly terminated. When the pandemic hit and the stay-at-home orders were put into effect in March, she was placed on leave. She was later informed that an investigation had been launched regarding the allegations she created a hostile work environment. Her original complaints were dismissed, as the company investigated its own claims.
On June 18, Newman was placed on furlough, and it was to go into effect on July 1. “Ms. Newman is aware of other non-Black and/or male employees who had not complained of discrimination, and who were not furloughed and continue to work at Live Nation despite the pandemic,” the suit says.
Newman seeks among other requests that the court grants her an unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as an injunction against the discriminatory and retaliatory practice of the company.
Live Nation announced they would furlough 20% of its full-time employees.
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