Toms River Company's Owners Sued For Pregnancy Discrimination

The CEO of a Toms River-based home improvement company and his wife are being sued by a Berkeley Township woman who says she was harassed for getting pregnant and then fired when she took time off after her prematurely-born son was discharged from the hospital.

Carl and Donna DelPizzo of Pizzo Contracting, also known as Carl’s Fencing, Decking and Home Improvements, are named as co-defendants in pregnancy discrimination lawsuit brought by Ashley Meyer of Bayville, in a copy of the suit obtained Friday afternoon by the Patch. The suit was filed in Superior Court in Monmouth County.

In the complaint, Meyer says she was hired by the DelPizzos as marketing coordinator in January 2014, after an interview where she was specifically asked if she had any children and whether day care would be an issue. Meyer’s complaint further says that when she did become pregnant a few months later, that her $57,000 salary was cut in half and she was subjected to harassment, with comments made about her appearance and accusing her of having “baby brain” that was causing her to make mistakes, according to the lawsuit.

Email and phone calls to Louis Lessig of Brown & Connery of Westmont, the attorney for the DelPizzos, seeking comment had not been returned by Saturday afternoon.

Meyer’s lawsuit says that after the DelPizzos became aware of her pregnancy, they were “rude and abrasive,” and began making comments -- some of which Meyer recorded, according to the complaint -- about her hair, her makeup and finding fault with her work.

On one audio recording, according to the lawsuit, Donna DelPizzo can be heard to say: “But anyway, I read it in the car and I was like “eek” you made a couple more mistakes. The other day you sent me something with a mistake too, so you may have baby brain. That’s what I used to tell my daughters all the time.”

She also criticized Meyer for no longer wearing makeup and for wearing her hair in a ponytail instead of it being “done up.”

According to the lawsuit, Meyer’s son was due in March 2015 but she gave birth in December 2014. She returned to work in January 2015, and was demoted from marketing coordinator to a part-time administrative sales assistant whose main responsibility was answering phones.

The complaint further says that when she learned her son was going to be discharged from the hospital, she gave the DelPizzos 30 days notice that she intended to take six weeks of leave under the Family Leave Act to be with the baby.

Carl DelPizzo, the lawsuit says, complained, calling her into his office, asking her if she would work part-time during the leave, and then both Carl and Donna DelPizzo refused to say whether she would have a job when she returned from leave.

Meyer was fired from her job in March 2015, the lawsuit states.

Meyer’s lawsuit also says she sought help from Carl’s Fencing co-owner Bill Rankin but that Rankin refused to intervene, telling her she needed to deal with Donna DelPizzo. Rankin is not named as a defendant in the suit.

Meyer’s lawsuit also asserts that she witnessed the DelPizzos repeatedly asking female job candidates about whether they were married, had children and whether day care would be an issue.

New Jersey state labor laws explicitly say it is against the law for a prospective employer to ask those questions, under N.J.S.A. 10:5-12.

And both state and federal law ban pregnancy-based discrimination, as well as specifically saying a business with 50 or more employees cannot fire a person for taking unpaid leave to care for a family member under the Family Leave Act. In the case of a baby, the parents have 12 months from when the baby is born to take a maximum of 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Meyer’s attorney, Matthew Luber of the law firm McOmber & McOmber, said via email that the lawsuit speaks for itself.

“We believe the facts will demonstrate Mrs. Meyer was subjected to discrimination and retaliation, and that she was ultimately terminated for exercising her employment rights,” Luber wrote.