Variety is reporting on a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Tania Zarak, a former Netflix executive, who alleges that she was let go after disclosing her pregnancy. Zarak was working as a manager of Netflix’s international originals division in 2018 when she revealed her pregnancy to the company in early November. The lawsuit alleges that she then found herself excluded from meetings and ignored by her manager, Francisco Ramos, who allegedly went so far as to remove her from a show she was working on without her knowledge. Zarak says she took her complaints to HR and, later that same day, was called into a meeting with Ramos to discuss the situation. The suit claims that during this meeting Zarak sought to reassure Ramos she could work during the pregnancy, but that he became “visibly agitated†when she told him she would be taking maternity leave after her due date in May. The next day, Ramos fired her.
The suit also claims that the company has indicated it offers employees up to a year of leave to care for newborn children, but that Netflix “secretly retaliates†against anyone who uses it. Netflix has not yet responded to the lawsuit.