Former Jewelry Television executive sues company

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Former Jewelry Television executive sues company

By Teresa Novellino

May 20, 2009

Knoxville, Tenn.--A former Jewelry Television executive who was among a group of staffers laid off last May is suing the company for age discrimination, alleging that he was axed because he had cancer and the company didn't want to keep paying for his treatments.

The employee, Steve Harry Gordon of Knoxville, Tenn., filed a complaint on May 11 in the U.S. District Court of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn., seeking $10 million in back pay, lost benefits and punitive damages. The lawsuit names Multimedia Commerce Group and its subsidiaries, including America's Collectibles Network, which does business as Jewelry Television (JTV), and nearly two dozen JTV executives, alleging that their actions violated the Tennessee Human Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

In the suit, Gordon says that he left a position at Apple Computer in 2004, after JTV recruited him as an internal consultant. The following year, 2005, Gordon was diagnosed with beta-cell follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the lawsuit says.

After informing his boss of the nature of his illness, and the high cost of the treatment, Gordon claims he met with top company executives who assured him that the costs would be "taken care of" by JTV as long as necessary, the lawsuit said. In the years that followed, he was promoted several times over and eventually achieved the position of vice president, overseeing procurement/supply chain, logistics, travel and Gemstore, JTV's retail store.

When the company conducted layoffs last spring as part of a "reduction in force," however, Gordon's name was on the list.

"On May 16, 2008, the plaintiff Steve Gordon, had been an employee in good standing until plaintiff was wrongly terminated because of the 'cost-containment' measures to eliminate the high health care costs associated with his cancer," the suit claims.

Gordon refused to sign the severance agreement that was handed to him and claims that the layoff was just a pretext, and that the company really wanted to get rid of him because of the cancer.

"The plaintiff contends that he was terminated because JTV was going to incur expensive health care costs for the treatment of his cancer," the suit says. "[Gordon] also contends that JTV sought to eradicate any individuals who would be a threat to JTV achieving its objective of an IPO (independent public offering), by having the effect of increasing health insurance or workers' compensation premiums."

Gordon, who seeks class-action status for the suit on behalf of others over the age of 40 who were also laid off, alleges that he was replaced by a younger employee and that "the defendants hired friends and family members and rehired certain individuals after the RIF [reduction in force]," the lawsuit says.

In an official statement, JTV said the complaint was "unfounded" and "without merit," and that Gordon's position was simply eliminated as part of a comprehensive corporate restructuring and downsizing that aimed to protect the company and its 1,000-plus remaining employees.

"Prior to the restructuring, Mr. Gordon's department had grown during a two-year period by over 400 percent," the statement said. "In the downsizing, the department for which Mr. Gordon had primary responsibility was downsized to three people. A long-time 59-year-old employee who had just had a heart attack and bypass surgery was retained to manage the department. Obviously, neither age nor medical condition had anything to do with this action."

The company statement also said that "it is very aware of the hardships caused by any layoff and deeply regrets the effect of the layoff" on Gordon, but that it was "unfortunate" that he rejected a severance package and instead chose litigation.

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