A former employee has filed a lawsuit against a major financial institution, alleging racial and age discrimination that led to her constructive discharge. On June 17, 2024, Penny Parraway filed a complaint in the Western District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against PNC Financial Service Group Inc., doing business as PNC Bank.
According to the complaint, Parraway, an African American woman who began her employment with PNC in 2006, faced continuous discriminatory treatment from her Market Manager, James “Jim” Balouris. She alleges that Balouris refused to acknowledge her experience and consistently denied her promotions while favoring similarly situated white employees. Parraway claims that Balouris's actions negatively impacted her career and earning potential. For instance, she was promoted to Regional Manager in April 2019 but soon found herself marginalized despite her qualifications and contributions. In one instance cited in the complaint, Balouris praised white employees during a VoiceEX Survey call but ignored Parraway’s performance.
Parraway also alleges that Balouris reassigned profitable branches from her region to those managed by younger white males and assigned low-performing branches to her area. This realignment significantly affected her commission-based earnings. Furthermore, she claims that Balouris assigned two underperforming African American male branch managers to her region solely because of their race.
In March 2023, after enduring years of alleged discrimination and hostile work conditions without any corrective action from PNC Bank despite reporting these issues internally, Parraway decided to retire early. She asserts that this decision was forced upon her due to the intolerable working environment created by Balouris’s discriminatory practices.
The lawsuit accuses PNC Bank of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Parraway is seeking back pay, front pay, compensatory damages for emotional distress and loss of professional opportunities, punitive damages for intentional misconduct by PNC Bank, as well as attorney’s fees and other court costs.
Representing Penny Parraway are attorneys Justin M. Bahorich and Joshua P. Ward from J.P. Ward & Associates LLC. The case is presided over by Judge Nora Barry Fischer under Case ID: 2:24-cv-00878-NBF.