‘Cleaned House’: Lawsuit Claims Kimberly Hotel Used Pandemic as Excuse to Fire Older Workers

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A proposed class and collective action claims the Kimberly Hotel’s termination of several dozen employees amid travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was merely the first step of a plan to “clean[] house” by replacing older workers with “younger, presumably lower paid” employees upon the New York City boutique hotel’s March 2021 reopening.

Alleging violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and New York State and New York City Human Rights Acts, the 13-page lawsuit chalks up Kimberly Hotel Inc.’s termination of the plaintiff and similarly situated employees, who were mostly over 40 years of age and had “significant experience” working at the hotel, to unlawful age discrimination.

While the defendant purportedly blamed the terminations on “unforeseen business circumstances prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the lawsuit notes that the ex-employees were not rehired when travel restrictions began to be lifted and the Kimberly Hotel reopened its doors back in March.

“Instead,” the complaint reads, “The Kimberly Hotel began hiring younger, presumably lower paid employees to fill the positions vacated as a result of [the plaintiff’s] and other employees’ terminations – or in the alleged words of The Kimberly Hotel Vice President and General Manager, Mujo Perezic, The Kimberly Hotel ‘cleaned house.’”

The lawsuit out of New York federal court was filed by a former housekeeper who says she had been working at the Kimberly Hotel for roughly 25 years before being terminated on February 9, 2021. Per the suit, the woman first received a letter in March 2020 informing her that she was being laid off from her position, with a subsequent letter stating that the layoff was due to “unforeseen business circumstances prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.” The second letter, received on April 7, further informed the plaintiff that the layoff was expected to be temporary but of undetermined duration and noted that the Kimberly Hotel would “close temporarily,” the case relays.

The lawsuit alleges that while the Kimberly Hotel is believed to have reopened in September 2020, the plaintiff was not recalled to work at this time. A November 2020 letter informed the plaintiff that she would “not be recalled” and that her “employment will terminate effective February 9, 2021,” according to the complaint. The plaintiff believes 30 to 40 other workers were also told that their employment would be terminated due to travel restrictions and lower hotel occupancy levels.

According to the suit, the other terminated employees had similar positions to the plaintiff—housekeepers, porters and doormen, for example—and most had “significant experience” working at the Kimberly Hotel. Moreover, the majority of the workers were over 40 years of age, the lawsuit alleges.

While the Kimberly Hotel closed down between December 2020 and February 2021, the hotel reopened in March 2021 and has since remained open, according to the complaint. Despite its reopening, the defendant has not recalled the plaintiff and other terminated employees back to work, the case says.

Rather than rehire former workers, the Kimberly Hotel allegedly filled their positions with younger employees, thereby discriminating against the plaintiff and similarly situated employees based on their age, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiff looks to represent anyone 40 years of age and older who worked for the Kimberly Hotel and was involuntarily terminated from their position anytime since October 28, 2020 “as a purported result of lower hotel occupancy rates due to COVID-19” and whose vacated position was filled by a younger person.

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