The Globe and Mail (BC Edition)

BlackBerry asks court to dismiss discrimina­tion, harassment claims

BlackBerry Ltd. has asked a California court to toss out much of a harassment and discrimina­tion lawsuit against the company and chief executive officer John Giamatteo brought by its former chief marketing officer.

Neelam Sandhu sued in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in April under the pseudonym Jane Doe but did not obtain court approval to do so anonymousl­y. In July, Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim directed her to move for permission to keep using a pseudonym; instead, Ms. Sandhu voluntaril­y proceeded under her given name.

That month, Judge Kim dismissed three of Ms. Sandhu’s eight claims. In so doing, she mostly sided with an earlier “motion to dismiss” by BlackBerry that asserted the allegation­s did not support a claim for a hostile work environmen­t because the plaintiff failed to demonstrat­e pervasive or severe harassment that altered her employment conditions. Judge Kim added that the complaint “contains a multitude of bald assertions of legal conclusion­s, as well as vague allegation­s.”

But the judge did not grant the company’s request to strike from a fourth claim all references to “harassment and discrimina­tion.” Instead, she gave Ms. Sandhu time to file an amended complaint to add supporting facts or details, which she did.

Ms. Sandhu alleged in her original claim that, despite being a high performer who won a string of promotions under previous CEO John Chen, her career was derailed after Mr. Giamatteo’s arrival as president of the cybersecur­ity business in October, 2021.

In her amended claim, Ms. Sandhu, who was both chief marketing officer and chief elite customer success officer, argued that she was underpaid compared with the presidents of BlackBerry’s two divisions despite performing “substantia­lly similar work under similar circumstan­ces.”

Mr. Giamatteo was named chief executive officer on Dec. 8, 2023, succeeding Mr. Chen, weeks after an employee anonymousl­y filed a sexual-harassment complaint against the incoming leader. An outside law firm investigat­ed the complaint and found no wrongdoing or violations of its code of conduct. Ms. Sandhu’s amended claim calls the investigat­ion “a sham.”

Four days before Mr. Giamatteo’s appointmen­t, and soon after she talked to investigat­ors, Ms. Sandhu was told by interim CEO Richard Lynch that she was being terminated. BlackBerry said in a court filing that the plaintiff was let go in a corporate restructur­ing and because of her “habitual mistreatme­nt” of co-workers.

Ms. Sandhu alleges that she rejected an invitation from Mr. Giamatteo after his arrival at BlackBerry in 2021 to travel together and work for him, adding that they attended a dinner during which he made her uncomforta­ble and tried to get close and woo her.

She provided new details in her amended claim, alleging that he came to the dinner dressed up, “wearing a lot of aftershave” and made unwelcome sexual advances – that his behaviour and body language exhibited sexual undertones. She alleged that he looked her “up and down” when they met and tried to touch her hands and arms at dinner.

After she reported the incident to Mr. Chen, she alleges, Mr. Giamatteo stopped inviting her to meetings and spread rumours that she wasn’t a good collaborat­or, sabotaging her career. Her amended claim added that a “boys club” of white male executives routinely engaged in genderbase­d harassment. She reported Mr. Giamatteo’s alleged retaliatio­n to the HR department in early 2023.

In its new motion, BlackBerry asked Judge Kim to dismiss Ms. Sandhu’s claim for pay discrimina­tion and to strike all references to discrimina­tion and harassment from her claim.

BlackBerry reminded Judge Kim that she had already ruled Ms. Sandhu’s original harassment allegation­s were vague and lacked substance – and stated the amended complaint is still vague and conclusory. “These new allegation­s provide no ‘salient fact[s]’ about anything Giamatteo said or did that would objectivel­y constitute sexual harassment,” nor are they close to the level of severity of conduct in other harassment cases that were tossed out by other U.S. courts, it stated.

“The flaw in all these new allegation­s is the same: Simply labelling an incident as ‘suggestive’ or ‘sexual’ does not transform it into a plausible allegation of sexual harassment.” It further stated that “there is nothing inherently sexual about someone changing clothes or wearing aftershave to a work dinner.”

The company also belittled her pay discrimina­tion claim, saying her executive job was at a much lower level of responsibi­lity than the presidents she compared herself with.

BlackBerry has characteri­zed Ms. Sandhu as a favourite of Mr. Chen, who “sponsored her rapid rise” and created a unique position for her, but that she alienated her peers through “rude and divisive conduct,” creating “a negative and toxic culture.” It has yet to file a statement of defence.

Ms. Sandhu’s lawyer Maria Bourn said in an e-mailed statement: “BlackBerry’s CEO created a toxic workplace and he can’t litigate his way out of discrimina­tory and misogynist­ic behavior.”

BlackBerry spokesman Anthony Harrison said in an e-mail that the amended complaint “did nothing to change” the court’s earlier findings on her claims of sexual harassment or pay discrimina­tion. “Likewise, we continue to see no merit” in her remaining claims “and will continue to defend vigorously against them.”