TikTok fired her after reporting sexual harassment, former female employee sued
TikTok: According to Katie Purvis's complaint, which was submitted to a federal court in Manhattan, she was let go from her job in 2022 after reporting bias to HR and a supervisor. He'd told them about a sexual harassment case.
On Thursday, a former TikTok top marketing executive filed a lawsuit against the social media platform and its parent company ByteDance, which is based in China. She says she complained about age, sex, and disability discrimination at work and was fired.
In a complaint submitted to a federal court in Manhattan, Katie Puris claimed that she was let go from her job in 2022 after informing HR and a supervisor about the bias. He'd told them about a sexual harassment case.
When Purvis was let go, he was roughly fifty years old. She has stated that she heard disparaging remarks regarding her age. Zhang Lidong, the president of ByteDance, said that female employees should "remain calm and polite at all times" and that "politeness and humility" should be given priority.
Purvis further stated that TikTok declined to grant her a leave of absence to attend to medical issues brought on by the strain and stress of her work. As of right now, neither ByteDance nor TikTok have commented on this.
Purvis' attorneys Marjorie Messidor and Monica Hinken said in a joint statement that she faced swift retaliation for complaining of discrimination despite being "highly successful" in her work. "TikTok's actions against Puris are illegal and we look forward to vindicating her rights," he said.
According to their complaint, Purvis previously worked at Alphabet's Google, Meta's Facebook and major advertising agencies. The lawsuit accuses TikTok and ByteDance of violating US and New York state and city laws that prohibit workplace discrimination and retaliation. Puri is seeking damages for economic loss, pain, suffering and damage to her reputation and career.
