E’x-Manager Sues Sports Bar, Claiming Bias, Harassment

The former manager of a popular Santa Monica sports bar is suing her ex-employer, claiming that her bosses canceled her health insurance after learning she was pregnant.

Patricia Roman-Neary, 30, former general manager of Legends, on The Promenade in Santa Monica, alleges she was the victim of sexual harassment and discrimination in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

The suit, which comes amid a surge in pregnancy discrimination cases nationwide, was filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court and seeks unspecified damages. Legends’ co-owners said they have not seen the suit but have denied the allegations after learning about them from press reports.

Roman-Neary describes a frat-house atmosphere at the bar, which opened on The Promenade in 1991. The company’s male co-owners told workers to plaster the walls with posters of buxom women and urged waitresses to wear tight or revealing clothing, according to the suit. Roman-Neary says one of her bosses would call the bar and ask other employees what she was wearing.

Roman-Neary says she was singled out for harassment once her bosses learned she was pregnant. After giving birth to her son in January, she discovered that the company had stopped paying her health insurance premiums and had demoted her during maternity leave. Her attorney said that she eventually paid the hospital bills from savings and her husband’s income.

“I was humiliated and really embarrassed,” said Roman-Neary, who lives in Northridge. “People asked me what I did wrong (to deserve the demotion). . . . I lost all incentive to really try hard at work.”

John Morris, a co-owner and former executive at Long Beach-based Sports Legends Inc., which owns the sports bar chain, denied Roman-Neary’s allegations, but said he had not seen the lawsuit.

“I swear on my kids, we have the receipts that prove the insurance company paid” for Roman-Neary’s maternity, Morris said. He added that the January earthquake damaged the building housing the bar and caused a 60% drop-off in business that required the elimination of Roman-Neary’s position as general manager.

When she returned from maternity leave in April, Morris said, she was offered a position as manager at the same pay as her previous job.

Roman-Neary has since filed for disability and says she will not return to work at Legends.

Legal experts said that lawsuits against pregnancy discrimination have become more commonplace since the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1991 that employers may not limit jobs for women to protect the health of a fetus. The court reasoned that companies had historically used health rules to deny women equal employment opportunities.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing recorded 6,563 complaints of sex discrimination in 1993. Of these, 1,015 were for pregnancy discrimination.