A New York City librarian, who is 6ft 2 inches tall and weighs 360 pounds, is suing her employers for $4.6 million after she was allegedly forced to work at a desk that was too small for her and caused her to suffer. .
William Martin says that not only were his concerns ignored by the management of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) but that he was assigned to work at a “crampy” desk in order to show him “he was great.”
Martin is suing the SNFL for discrimination, workplace harassment and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. He also says that his name was tarnished by a co-worker accusing him of sleeping on the job.
According to the lawsuit filed this month, Martin first brought up his health and safety concerns about the first floor work desk at his employer in October 2021. He said the desk, which had a wobbly countertop and a 12-inch drop, was missing. a place to live for a man of his size.
Martin “requested a work desk with appropriate and desirable areas such as ample leg room and even a countertop,” the lawsuit, found by The Independent, he said.
Although his supervisor was initially “very sympathetic to his plight,” the superiors refused to intervene, and Martin was forced to join his union and later removed from the desk.
However, in June 2023 he was forced to raise the issue again, this time through a legal representative, after a supervisor gave him an inadequate desk.
This caused the supervisor to change the schedule for the desk allocation for the month of July and “it increases dramatically.[ing] the amount of assigning Williams to the aforementioned service desk on the first floor which lacked proper seating,” the lawsuit said. “So SNFL apparently retaliated by forcing William to do the one thing he knew was detrimental to his health and safety.”
Library management’s “egregious practices of discrimination, harassment and workplace aggression have escalated,” according to the suit, with Martin forced to work at an inappropriate desk “week after week.” “This is the SNFL’s way of bullying William and threatening him, showing him ‘who’s the boss,'” he said.
The lawsuit also said that, in addition to arranging for Martin to work at a small desk, the library’s HR department later said it had no record of him raising health concerns in 2021.
They were also suspended following “Kangaroo court issues” where they “cornered” a supervisor at a meeting where they did not have a union representative present. In September 2023, the librarian also defamed William by falsely claiming to have seen Martin sleeping at work.
“William’s mental health was damaged to the extent that he could no longer work at SNFL, which had defamed him, that he trembled when he thought about returning to work at SNFL, and that he became anxious and depressed,” the court said.
In this case, Martin called for a fine of up to $4.6 million, as well as other costs determined by the court.
The Independent contacted the New York Public Libraries to comment on the lawsuit.
A spokesman for the organization said The New York Post that the case was “nonsensical. “We take staff accommodation and concerns very seriously, and we are committed to treating our staff throughout the Library with respect and dignity,” he said.