A former TMZ worker filed a lawsuit Tuesday against parent corporations from celebrity gossip exhibition Warner Bros. Entertainment and EHM Productions, citing gender discrimination and retaliation.
Bernadette Zilio, 27, worked at TMZ and TooFab, another entertainment site owned by Warner Bros.et EHM Productions, from 2015 to 2020 and said he said goodbye after complaining to Human Resources about a culture of toxicity and sexism. TMZ founder Harvey Levin, TooFab editor Shyam Dodge, and TooFab’s main manufacturer, Ross McDonagh, are also in demand.
In Tuesday’s complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And California’s Department of Housing and Fair Employment, Zilio said he visited Warner Bros. human resources representatives. in April 2019 on problems of “sexism, depreciation, preferential remedy and lies.” running towards [his] team. She told Human Resources that she felt there was an apartment in the way men and women were treated on her team, and that when she talked about writing McDonagh’s articles, she thought it was sexist and offensive, like the one she compared Rihanna to bronchitis. and the “attack on her lungs” that she was attacked through Chris Brown. Array, your considerations of domestic violence have been dismissed.
The complaint also notes that Zilio and his companions described the paintings’ surroundings as “a boys’ club,” “100% siblings” and a “damn fraternity house.”
“The first time I went to Human Resources, they started an investigation,” Zilio told BuzzFeed News. “Nothing is ever concrete, nothing is ever written. I never receive follow-up emails from anything… tell you we have a policy of not retaliation. The investigation ends, nothing changes, and that’s where those took place a small bureaucracy of retaliation”.
Two weeks later, Zilio declared that RR. Hh. had told him that they had not discovered any evidence of sexual bias in his investigation uncovered in his complaint. It was then that Zilio said he had begun to retaliate against reporting his concerns.
Bernadette Zilio, former TMZ worker.
Zilio said TMZ’s general manager, Stuart Alpert, had led her to an assembly and said, “Shyam [Dodge] is your boss. Pay attention to that and paints like one, or you’re leaving. Levin also called Zilio at a space convention for a personal meeting after human resources research.
“He explained that no matter what I had a challenge with, no matter what challenges I had internally within the team with people management, it didn’t matter,” Zilio said. “My task was to inform Shyam [Dodge] and Shyam was the guy Harvey hired, so that’s the comguyd chain and I intend to do as I’m told. It wasn’t a conversation, I didn’t get a chance to say something, so I left that assembly crying.”
Zilio said he also rebuked her for making mistakes in paintings for which her male colleagues had not been criticized.
In January 2020, Zilio contacted another Warner Bros. human resources representative. to tell him that he did not believe that anything had been done to fix the environment of sexist paintings that he had complained about in 2019. He then spoke to representatives of relations with Warner Bros. painters. in February about how she even led male and female painters were being treated and described what she called a sexist environment, even though she said she was nervous about retaliation for proceeding with Human Resources.
Zilio eventually dismissed and, according to the complaint, his separation agreement, which he refused to sign, dated February 26, 2020, a day after his last human resources assembly on his accusations of culture of poisonous and sexist paintings.
“When I contacted Human Resources at the time in January 2020, I said in particular, ‘I’m petrified to contact you right now because my life turned hell after the last time I went to see a human resources representative, ‘,’ Zilio says. She repeated again: “We have a policy of not retaliation. Whatever your problems, we don’t discriminate here, I’m here to help. “And it was the same woman who took me to the front door on my last day.
In a statement, a spokesperson for TMZ and TooFab said the company “separated” from Zilio after “plagiarism incidents and mis reports.”
“It is clear to use negative exposure and misrepresentation to force TooFab and TMZ to pay a financial settlement,” the spokesman added. “We will vigorously protect ourselves from any distortion of what is a legal and justified employment decision.”
Harvey Levin, founder and manufacturer of TMZ.
Bryan Arbeit, a lawyer representing Zilio, told BuzzFeed News that “this environment has been allowed to persist and Warner Bros. is aware of what is happening in the afterlife and what continues to happen.
He added that any claim regarding job functionality issues was “denied by the fact that Ms. Zilio worked for the company for five years and gained significant construction just before her discrimination complaint, and fired immediately afterwards.”
“We are asking the EEOC to do a full investigation into the toxic environment that Warner Brothers and its subsidiaries have condoned for too many years,” Arbeit said. “We hope other women who have experienced similar discrimination and retaliation as Ms. Zilio will speak out to help change how women are treated in the entertainment industry.”
Zilio said she was “always terrified” to speak brabably about her delight in TMZ and TooFab despite the fact that she no longer works there, but her purpose is the execution situations of existing employees.
“I’m afraid, but at the same time, it’s more vital than being fired. I feel like it’s time for other people to be held accountable,” Zilio said. “I need the culture to change. I don’t need to leave this place of work to cry and feel useless. I don’t think it’s healthy or normal.”
In addition to seeing a replacement around the paintings at TMZ, TooFab and Warner Bros., Zilio said he also hoped the entire entertainment industry would make concrete adjustments to make sure women are attracted to going to human resources when they run in a poisonous and sexist environment. Around.
“It should be truly, truly taken into account when a woman goes to HR and says, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this,’ or ‘I have a problem with that,’ and I think there need to be steps taken to have a more concrete HR investigation process,” she said. “Because right now, I think people just twiddle their thumbs and come back and tell you nothing is wrong. I think there should be paper trails, more involvement with the actual employee, and more testimony from other people.”
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