Alcon settling gender discrimination suit, still facing one claim

Fort Worth-based Alcon Laboratories, an eye-care company, still faces a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination six months after the company reached a settlement with 13 other women.

In December, Alcon reached the settlement with the women in the suit filed in federal court in New York in March 2015. The settlement has not yet been approved by the court. Terms of the settlement also have not been disclosed.

The suit is also against Alcon’s parent, Novartis Corp., which acquired Alcon in 2011.

An attempt to settle with the remaining plaintiff through mediation in June was unsuccessful, court documents said.

The suits have been about allegations of gender discrimination when it came to pay and promotions.

Elyse Dickerson, a former marketing executive in Fort Worth, and Susan Orr filed the initial lawsuit together, although they were each seeking different outcomes. Dickerson was seeking $10 million in damages on her own, but Orr was seeking $100 million for herself and others under the Equal Pay Act. Twelve women joined the lawsuit, court records show.

“It is a matter of public record that settlement agreements have been filed,” Alcon said in a statement Monday. “We refrain from commenting further on this matter.”

In April, lawyers for Alcon asked that Dickerson’s case be moved to Fort Worth, where Alcon is headquartered and Dickerson worked and lives. It is also where she filed a discrimination charge with the Texas Workforce Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Dickerson’s lawyers for the second time amended her complaint on Friday. The charges and allegations in the suit largely stay the same as initially filed, but Dickerson had increased her damages request to $15 million and added charges of alleged defamation.

“The amended complaint filed last Friday does not include any new claims, and in fact the only substantive change in the amended complaint is the withdrawal of a wrongful termination claim that was included in her prior complaint,” Alcon’s statement said.

Dickerson, a former global director for pharmaceuticals, worked for Alcon from March 2002 until she was terminated in January 2015, when the EEOC issued her a right-to-sue letter. Dickerson was let go two weeks before a majority of her Novartis stock grants, worth more than $750,000, were scheduled to vest and when she was on federally protected medical leave, the suit says.

This story was originally published July 18, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Alcon settling gender discrimination suit, still facing one claim."