GSK settles discrimination, breach of contract suit

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect a 2014 settlement.

PHILADELPHIA – A former GlaxoSimthKline employee who alleged discrimination has settled her lawsuit.

Annamaria Ranieri filed her suit in June 2013, alleging that she was discriminated against by a supervisor and that the company did not pay market value for her Arizona home when she moved to Raleigh, N.C., as per a relocation agreement.

On April 4, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed the case following notification of a settlement.

The lawsuit states that Ranieri was hired for the position of director of sales and marketing for U.S. Aesthetics in February 2011.

As a condition of her employment, the suit states, GlaxoSmithKline offered the plaintiff relocation expenses and also offered to pay fair market value for the home Ranieri left behind in Scottsdale, Ariz., if the property was not sold to a third party within a certain time frame.

Between August 2011 and June 2012, after Ranieri had been working at the Raleigh location for six months, a male supervisor began making repeated discriminatory and harassing comments to the plaintiff because of her gender, the suit states.

After complaints were allegedly made, the supervisor retaliated against Ranieri by screaming at her regarding sales figures that were allegedly not her responsibility, falsely accusing the plaintiff of submitting false expense reports and falsely accusing the woman of being rude and hostile to her direct reports, according to the lawsuit.

As for the housing situation, Ranieri claims that after her Scottsdale home was on the market for a period of 90 days, the defendant made a below-market-value offer to purchase the property.

The suit was filed by Philadelphia attorney William J. Fox.

Terms of the settlement were confidential.