Monday, April 2, 2018

Nexstar: Harrisburg Retaliation Allegation Is 'Preposterous'

Flora Posteraro
Nexstar Media Group Inc., which owns abc27, is refuting claims that the station and a manager discriminated against a Harrisburg-based news anchor and retaliated after she complained.

In an interview Friday morning with the Central PA Business Journal, a Nexstar executive said decisions affecting the anchor, Flora Posteraro, had nothing to do with her gender or an anonymous complaint filed in August with the company’s human resources department

"Her claims that this is retaliation are preposterous," said Theresa Underwood, a senior executive vice president and regional manager with Nexstar, which is based in Texas.

Like many companies, Nexstar typically does not comment on legal or HR matters, Underwood said. But she said the company wanted to defend itself and abc27’s general manager, Robert Bee, whose alleged actions are the subject of a complaint filed by Posteraro with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, or PHRC.

Chuck Curley
The company’s reaction did not surprise Posteraro’s attorney, Chuck Curley of the Conshohocken-based law firm Curley & Rothman LLC.

"Companies always say they do a thorough investigation and they always say they take it seriously," Curley said. "That’s just a cliche. The fact is, what happened to this woman in this short period of time, falling from where she fell, the only explanation we think holds any water is the fact that they were retaliating against her."

In her complaint with PHRC, filed March 22, Posteraro claims she was discriminated against on the basis of her gender and that the television station retaliated against her for complaining about Bee, who allegedly made derogatory remarks about women anchors after coming to abc27 in January 2017. He also is alleged to have based staffing decisions on gender.

Posteraro was offered the same pay, but she considered the change a demotion and complained to HR on Feb. 5, alleging it was an act of retaliation, according to the complaint to PHRC.

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