U.S. General Services Administration sued by employee for discrimination

A 35-year employee of the U.S. government has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against her employer, alleging she was passed over for promotions because of her age.

Philadelphia attorney Sidney L. Gold filed the complaint Feb. 29 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of Philadelphia resident Patti Vaughn.

The defendant named in the lawsuit is Martha N. Johnson, administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration, which is where Vaughn has worked since 1990 as a contracting specialist/officer.

The lawsuit alleges that Vaughn failed to receive a promotion in the summer of 2010 to a supervisory contract specialist position because of her age.

Vaughn is 58 years old.

The suit also claims the defendant failed to promote Vaughn to two other positions, that of business development specialist and realty services specialist, again allegedly due to her age.

The complaint alleges that the defendant went on to promote various other individuals to positions similar to those which were sought by Vaughn. Those individuals were significantly younger, and less experienced than the plaintiff, the suit claims.

“Plaintiff Vaughn believes and avers that the Defendant’s articulated reasons for its failure to promote her to the [desired] positions were pretextual, and that Defendant’s actions were solely based on her age,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states that Vaughn, who first began working for the federal government back in 1977, has never had any job performance related issues, and that she was quite capable, and more than qualified, to receive the promotions for which she sought.

The lawsuit accuses the defendant of violating the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Vaughn seeks front pay, liquidated damages, pre-and-post judgment interest, litigation costs and attorney’s fees.

She has demanded a jury trial.

The federal case number is 2:12-cv-01092-MAM.