Ahmad v. N.Y.C. Health & Hosps. Corp.
| Decision Date | 31 March 2021 |
| Docket Number | 20 Civ. 675 (PAE) |
| Parties | SALEEM AHMAD, RASHID ABDULLAH, NASEER AHMED, MOHAMMAD HASAN, SYED KAZMI, MUHAMMED RAHMAN, SYED RAZA and HAIDER SYED, Plaintiffs, v. NEW YORK CITY HEALTH AND HOSPITALS CORPORATION; EBONÉ CARRINGTON, Chief Executive Officer of Harlem Hospital Center, in her individual and official capacities; HINNAH FAROOQI, Associate Executive Director of Harlem Hospital Center, in her individual and official capacities, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Plaintiffs are eight Pakistani-born, Muslim pharmacists who bring employment claims against their employer, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation ("H+H"); Harlem Hospital Center's Chief Executive Officer, Eboné Carrington ("Carrington"); and a supervisor, Hinnah Farooqi ("Farooqi"). They claim to have suffered discriminatory treatment based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, and age, and retaliation for challenging these practices. Plaintiffs' 15 causes of action fall into seven clusters: (1) claims of disparate treatment, hostile work environment, and retaliation on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 et seq. ("Title VII"), the New York State Human Rights Law, New York Exec. Law § 296 et seq. ("NYSHRL") and the New York City Human Rights Law, N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-502(a) et seq. ("NYCHRL"); (2) claims of discrimination and retaliation based on race and ethnicity under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and related claims under Article 1, § 11 of the New York State Constitution; (3) claims of discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981; (4) claims of discrimination on the basis of age under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. ("ADEA"); (5) a claim under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), against H+H alleging a discriminatory and retaliatory custom, policy or practice, and a Monell policymaker claim against H+H alleging that Carrington and Farooqi created or approved of discriminatory policies; (6) a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) alleging conspiracy to interfere with plaintiffs' civil rights; and (7) a claim for retaliation in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, also brought under § 1983, and related claim under the New York State Constitution.
Before the Court is defendants' motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For the reasons that follow, the Court grants the motion in part and denies it in part.
H+H is a public-benefit corporation that operates hospitals, clinics, and care facilities in New York City. Compl. ¶¶ 19-20. Harlem Hospital Center ("HHC") is one such public hospital in the H+H system. Id. ¶ 21. Carrington is HHC's Chief Executive Officer. Id. ¶ 22. Since2014, Farooqi has been HHC's Associate Executive Director. Id. ¶¶ 23, 29. Farooqi directly supervises Hans Go ("Go"), HHC's Assistant Director of the Pharmacy. Id. ¶ 24. Farooqi is a non-Sunni Muslim woman of Indian descent. Id. ¶ 23.
Plaintiffs are eight Pakistani-born, Muslim men over age 40. Id. ¶ 10. They identify their national origin as Pakistani and their race and ethnicity as South Asian. Id. Some identify as Muslim; others, as Sunni Muslim. Id. ¶¶ 11-18. All eight are pharmacists at HHC. Id. Individual plaintiffs' backgrounds are discussed infra.
Saleem Ahmad ("Ahmad"), age 65, is Pakistani-born and Sunni Muslim. Id. ¶ 43. He has worked for HHC since 2007. Id. He is a Level III pharmacist, a Tour III supervisor,2 the pharmacy department's union representative to Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union ("SEIU"), and the highest-ranking Pakistani pharmacist at HHC. Id. He is an adjunct faculty member at New York Medical College. Id.
Ahmad alleges that Farooqi has reduced his supervisory responsibilities and institutional prominence at HHC. Id. ¶ 45. He alleges that his name and contact information were not included in the orientation booklet given to incoming residents. Id. ¶ 46. He further alleges that Farooqi, since becoming Associate Executive Director ("AED") of HHC, has understaffed his Tour III shift despite a contrary recommendation in September 2015 from HHC's labor relations department. Id. ¶ 48. Due to this routine understaffing, Ahmad must perform certain front-end Level I pharmacist duties, which have "compromised" his supervisory duties. Id. ¶ 49. As aresult, Ahmad has been left without support in the main pharmacy for multiple hours with an increased workload. Id. ¶ 50. Farooqi and her direct reports remove pharmacists from Tour III to fill emergency needs on Tours I and II. Id. ¶ 54. They also transfer work responsibilities, such as code-cart preparations and expired medication checks, from Tour II to Tour III. Id. In 2018, Ahmad alleges, he requested increased staffing of Tour III to allow him to complete annual evaluations of the staff he supervised. Id. ¶ 57. Instead, responsibility for the evaluations was given to a "a younger non-Pakistani" who had not supervised or observed the staff. Id.
Ahmad further alleges that Farooqi has restricted his access to certain pharmacy areas, including the pharmacy office, the conference room, copying and scanning facilities, and the procurement office. Id. ¶ 51.
Ahmad further alleges that Farooqi has barred him from using office space, desk space, and shelf space in the pharmacy department for journal articles he writes. Id. ¶ 55. On May 19, 2019, Ahmad alleges, Farooqi, Go, and Gurdeep Sareen ("Sareen"), a non-Pakistani born pharmacist, id. ¶ 52, "aggressively" approached Ahmad and ordered him to remove research documents from an area near a window, id. Ahmad alleges that this incident was shared with human resources and "labor relations executives" at HHC. It is unclear when the incident was reported and whether it was Ahmad who reported it. Id.
In or around April 2018, Ahmad alleges, Farooqi instructed Farrukh Zaman ("Zaman"), a former Assistant Director, to change Ahmad's performance evaluation from "above satisfactory" to "satisfactory." Id. ¶ 58. Zaman refused to do so and submitted a complaint about the order, calling it an "injustice." Id. ¶ 59. The Complaint does not reflect to whom this complaint was made.
On September 9, 2019, Ahmad received a Notice and Statement of Charges against him, whose 24 specifications detailed conduct "for which younger, non-Pakistani pharmacists were not disciplined." Id. ¶ 60. Ahmad pleads that these specifications are unmerited and fabricated and brought in retaliation for making internal complaints to H+H's EEO office in January 2019.3 Id. ¶¶ 38, 60-61. Specifically, Ahmad notes that one charge accuses him of having made a comment about an Assistant Director on a certain day in front of pharmacy staff, a day that Ahmad was scheduled as having had off. Id. ¶ 61. He alleges that another charge was related to "his performing religious ablutions." Id. As of the filing of the Complaint, Ahmad had not received a hearing. Id. ¶ 62.
Rashid Abdullah ("Abdullah"), age 56, is Pakistani-born and Sunni Muslim. Id. ¶ 63. He has been employed as a staff pharmacist with HHC since 2010. Id. He is currently a Level II pharmacist. Id. He has general pharmacy experience and specialized skills in pediatric pharmacy and medications. Id. ¶ 64.
Abdullah was hired in September 2010 as a part-time Level I pharmacist. Id. ¶ 63. In August 2013, Abdullah accepted a position working as a full-time Level I pediatric pharmacist with a four-day per-week working schedule. Id. ¶ 65. Abdullah travels from Buffalo weekly and accepted the position on the basis that he would work four days per week. Id. On or about January 15, 2015, Abdullah was promoted to a Level II pediatric pharmacist but continued to commute from Buffalo, working double shifts. Id. ¶ 66.
Abdullah alleges that he has applied for Level III pharmacist positions since 2016 but has not been promoted despite nine years of service and excellent recommendations. Id. ¶¶ 68-69.One was a Level III pharmacist position posted on the H+H website in or about August 2016. Id. ¶ 69. "Upon information and belief," Abdullah alleges that the positions were awarded to less qualified non-Pakistani pharmacists. Id. ¶ 70. Abdullah identifies two such appointments. Curtis Chin, a non-Pakistani pharmacist in his mid-30s who began working at HHC in November 2010 as a Level I pharmacist, was promoted to an unposted Level III clinical pharmacist post in or about August 2018. Id. ¶ 71. Sareen, a non-Pakistani pharmacist in his mid-30s who began working at HHC in December 2018, was hired directly as a Level III clinical pharmacist despite having limited or no clinical experience as a hospital or clinical pharmacist. Id. ¶ 72. Abdullah alleges that he was not notified of this vacancy. Id.
Abdullah alleges that he receives disparate treatment with respect to his schedule. He alleges that non-Pakistani pharmacists are afforded more scheduling flexibility, while he must adhere to the strict Tour I, Tour II, and Tour III hours. Id. ¶ 75. He also alleges that on June 2, 2015, Farooqi abruptly changed his shifts despite knowing that he had booked travel from Buffalo months in advance. Id. ¶ 76.
Since Farooqi became AED, Abdullah's performance evaluations have dropped from "above satisfactory" to "satisfactory," despite Farooqi expressing positive verbal reviews of his work, including stating that she "[wished she] could clone [him]." Id. ¶ 77. Abdullah alleges that he has not received an annual performance review since 2018. Id. ¶ 78.
In February 2018, Grace Nnoli ("Nnoli"), a non-Pakistani pharmacist, was made a supervisor and later removed all of Abdullah's pediatric and neonatal responsibilities. Id. ¶ 79. He has...
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