By LAUREN PEARLE
Sept. 19, 2012

Deutsche Bank today got slapped with a retaliation lawsuit after terminating a seasoned vice president who last year sued the bank for gender discrimination, claiming she was “mommy-tracked” for taking maternity leave.

“I worked extremely hard and, as a working mom, I sacrificed so much. I just wanted to be treated equally and no different than my male colleagues,” Kelley Voelker told ABC News.

Voelker, now in her mid-40s, was a vice president with the bank’s securities lending desk for 14 years. In a still pending lawsuit filed in September 2011, she claimed that despite consistently high performance reviews, Deutsche Bank denied her a promotion and eventually demoted her, one of its few female vice presidents, solely because of her gender and recent childbirth.

Voelker accused the bank of promoting equally-qualified male candidates while her workplace had a “hostile and degrading” atmosphere towards women. She claimed one of her managers frequently used vulgar sexual language and another took clients to strip clubs.

When Voelker was about to go on maternity leave in 2003 with her first child, she said one superior “expressed his doubts” she would return to the company. Her discrimination lawsuit claimed her supervisors, “never took her seriously because she was a woman starting a family, and this was seen as a huge negative within the company.”

In late 2009, when she announced her need to go on maternity leave with her last child, the suit claimed “her exemplary performance was further ignored and her male colleagues ensured her alienation through their actions on and around the trading desk.”

When Voelker questioned a decision made by one of her superiors in fall 2009, another executive said, “I’d watch your step – she’s pregnant,” the suit claims. In response, her supervisor replied, “No need to tell me. I’ve got one at home,” referring to his pregnant wife.

Another male colleague asked her: “When is your husband gonna get it together so you can stay home with the kids?” Voelker told ABC News.

When she returned from her last maternity leave in May 2010 to a “chilling welcome,” according to the suit, a superior in the company “immediately” tried to persuade her to take on a more “flexible” reduced role, a request echoed by “various members of Deutsche Bank management.”

In the discrimination suit, she says she voiced “strong objections” to the idea and reiterated her desire for a long-awaited promotion.

Instead, Voelker was terminated a year after filing her 2011 discrimination suit. She was the only member of her 500-person group to be laid off as part a September 2012 “reduction in force,” she said.

Today’s lawsuit claims Deutsche Bank “has chosen to blatantly retaliate against Ms. Voelker [for filing the 2011 discrimination lawsuit] by firing her after a campaign of behavior by company management to sideline her and induce her resignation.”

In a statement to ABC News, a Deutsche Bank spokesman said: “While we take all allegations of discrimination and retaliation very seriously, we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations.”

“Retaliation is often a much more serious, actionable and provable claim than the underlying discrimination claim,” employment law expert Jack Tuckner, who is not involved in this case, told ABC News. And it’s the retaliation case that can bring the hefty damage awards, because now she can sue for the compensation she would have received had she not been terminated for alleged discrimination, adds Tuckner.

“We believe that this is a systemic problem at Deutsche Bank based on other cases and discussions with other witnesses,” Voelker’s attorney Douglas Wigdor told ABC News. Specifically, today’s retaliation suit mentions a 2006 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decision to censure Deutsche Bank for “evidence” of gender discrimination and one NY court’s observation in 2003 that “the incommensurate and exceedingly low number of females at senior management levels suggest a glass ceiling for women” at Deutsche Bank.

Voelker said her termination left her “shocked” but that she is “now more determined than ever to see that Deutsche Bank is held accountable for what they did to me and my family.”

ABC News’ Susanna Kim contributed to this report.

Jack is the joy of Pamela Alexander’s life, but she had no idea how much becoming Jack’s mom would change her life.

Two years ago, she was a top salesperson for a Wisconsin company called Name Protect, winning, she says, accolades and promotions until she revealed she was pregnant. Within two weeks, Alexander was fired in a cost-cutting move.

“You shouldn’t have to make this choice between keeping your job and having a child,” she says. “To have them let me go for budgetary reasons, I mean, the only thing that made sense, the only thing I could conclude, was because I was pregnant.”

Today, more than 70 million American women work, and almost three-quarters of them have children — which makes pregnancy discrimination cases seem so 1980′s. But in fact, claims are increasing, up 31 percent from 1992 to 2005, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Mary Jo O’Neill is an EEOC attorney in Phoenix who handles such claims. She attributes the increase to companies that don’t realize it’s against the law and have misconceptions about how pregnancy can affect one’s job.

“Oh, they’re going to miss work, oh, they’re not going to be committed to the job, oh, they’re not coming back, oh, they’re going to be expensive,” says O’Neill, listing the misconceptions. “And so a lot of those mis-fears and stereotypes really lead to discrimination.”

To protect yourself, women’s rights attorney Jack Tuckner says put all your news and requests in writing.

“To announce it to your boss at the water cooler is a mistake,” says Tuckner. “It could be very friendly, in an e-mail or a letter to Benefits or Human Resources saying, ‘I’m just inquiring into my rights and benefits when this leave begins.’ ”
The state of Wisconsin found no probable cause that Pamela Alexander was a victim of discrimination. Now, with what her attorney says is new documentation, Alexander is suing Name Protect in federal court. Name Protect says the allegations of pregnancy discrimination are “categorically false” and expects the court will agree as more women fight to ensure that becoming a mom doesn’t mean losing your job.

Official Transcript:

DEBRAHLEE LORENZANA, FIRED BY CITIBANK: Thank you.
BEHAR: OK let me start with you Debrahlee, when did you start working for Citibank, and when did you get fired?
LORENZANA: I started working in Citibank on September of `08 and got I fired on August of `09.
BEHAR: Oh so they had a nice period of time where they could feast their eyes on you. What happened? What took them so long?
LORENZANA: For the first couple months, everything was fine when I was going in training. Once I was at my branch, and it came from my branch, little comments started arising.
BEHAR: Little comments?
BEHAR: Little comments?
LORENZANA: Yes, your pants are too tight.
BEHAR: Who would say that?
LORENZANA: The branch manager and the assistant branch manager. BEHAR: Did you say why are you looking at my ass?
LORENZANA: I couldn`t, it`s HR issue.
BEHAR: OK.
LORENZANA: I would say, they would say to me you cannot wear pencil skirt. You cannot wear a turtleneck. So every day I was getting picked on to the point that one day, I decided to tone it down a little bit. I thought, I`m not going to wear makeup today, and I`m going to put my hair in a bun -
BEHAR: Good.
LORENZANA: And I did that and the branch manager tells one of my colleagues to tell me to go put on make-up because I look sick -
BEHAR: Good.
LORENZANA: And then to tell me to blow dry my hair because my hair is curly and it looks, it doesn`t look neat enough.
BEHAR: I see and how about clothing, they wanted you to wear a hefty bag?
LORENZANA: I think I would have been very successful in a hefty bag.
BEHAR: No, they would have say, no, it wasn`t tied to, it`s to messy. It sounds like they were focusing on you quite a bit.
JACK TUCKNER, ATTORNEY FOR DEBRAHLEE LORENZANA: Who can blame them.
BEHAR: She`s a beautiful girl, but beautiful women work all over the place. Maybe a bank is too tight fit for a pretty girl to work in? Is that what I`m hearing?
– TUCKNER: No, it has nothing really to do with her clothing which was impeccable and was stylish. Citibank never really said you really can`t wear this clothing. It was right smack dab in the middle of their dress code policy. In fact, Debrahlee would say others would point out other women in the bank tellers was showing cleavage and wearing mini-skirts.
BEHAR: Oh really – TUCKNER: And stiletto shoes -
BEHAR: So what`s the issue really then, why do you think – what happen there, if other women were dressing seductively and they were on your case then what is the truth?
LORENZANA: Because I believe when I once I started reaching to human resources, here, human resources is supposed to be on our side. The reality is it`s not. It`s there to protect the employer.
BEHAR: That`s right.
LORENZANA: As soon as you notify human resources, it`s a flag that you`re out the door. It`s just a matter of days before you days are counted. They came to do an investigation. First they ignored me completely. Then they came to do an investigation, and Ms. Morgan (ph) my human resources representative, that day when she came to my branch, I said to her, this is what I wear to work. She says, I don`t see anything wrong with that. And I had a camera where I showed her a picture of one of my associates, what they were wearing. And I said, if we`re going to have a dress policy, it should be across the board to everyone the same.
BEHAR: That`s right.
LORENZANA: I have not broken the dress policy, and here, there are some associates that do, and their explanation of my bosses were, well, your body type is very different, so you draw too much attention.
BEHAR: So in other words, if you look bad in the clothes, they are OK even if everything is coming out. But if you look good, they`re not OK with it, that`s basically what you are saying.
TUCKNER: Exactly.
LORENZANA: That`s basically in a couple of words – I was in a state of shock.
BEHAR: Do you every think of maybe gaining 100 pounds so people would like you better? So you would look worse in your clothes? LORENZANA: I am not 100 dollar bill so no — so nobody is going to like me that much.
BEHAR: Did they directly say you have got to change the way you dress?
LORENZANA: Yes -
BEHAR: They did.
LORENZANA: They did and -
BEHAR: And then you complained to HR. And then what happen?
LORENZANA: HR conducts an investigation. I requested to get a transfer, and HR said to me that I was hired for that branch because I was a good business hunter and that branch needed someone as strong as me there so please just to bear with it as they were going with the investigation. A couple weeks later, now they started another issue started raising. Every time I would be outside looking for new business and my clients would come in looking for me, my business was given to the other business banker, to the male business banker.
BEHAR: I see.
LORENZANA: Now, when I approach human resources again letting them know this is what is going on, they would not respond back. They would not get my calls. There were numerous different occasions, an example, I was supposed to move boxes from the second floor to the basement. I figure let me take off my heels –
BEHAR: You were supposed to do that?
LORENZANA: Well because the branch manager asked me to do that as a favor. And I didn`t see anything wrong. We were fixing a closet where we wanted to make it more convenient for us to have all the disclosures and documents from the very handy so when we`re with a client, we don`t have to go downstairs to pick up some of the papers like we did.
BEHAR: So what happened there?
TUCKNER: The point is that she put on her flip-flops and took off her pumps to go down to the basement.
BEHAR: Again with the clothes.
TUCKNER: Again with the clothes, take off the flip-flops and put back on the pumps, apparently they couldn`t stand you know the sight.
BEHAR: How are you supposed to carry boxes with stilettos?
LORENZANA: that`s what I said to me assistant branch manager and he said to me he didn`t care. That that is what he said and that`s what had to be done.
BEHAR: So do you think the whole thing is because you went to human resources. LORENZANA: Definitely.
BEHAR: That`s what it is.
LORENZANA: Definitely.
BEHAR: That`s interesting. As a lawyer, what do you advise a client about that stuff or even people watching who work in corporations and they see sexual harassment going on or whatever, they report it to human resources and Debrahlee is saying that is the ticket to being fired.
TUCKNER: In this economy most people are afraid if you complain that I`m going to get fired, it`s going to be – BEHAR: I`m sorry, go ahead.
TUCKNER: It will be a big problem so I`m going to go along to get along in this environment. And people do that all the time, slavishly
because they have to. When a strong assertive woman who said you know what, I`m not going to play with these guys who were doing this Wayne`s World kind of you know babe alert shwing every time they saw her, they were, you know, they made a joke out of this fact that we can`t focus because you`re so hot.
BEHAR: OK, I know that. OK, let me read this statement, OK, Citibank, “Ms. Lorenzana has chosen to make numerous unfounded accusations and inaccurate statements about Citibank and several of our employees. While we will not discuss the detail of her case, we can say that her termination was solely performance-based and not at all related to her appearance or attire. We`re confident that when all of the facts are presented, the claim will be dismissed.” No how do you respond to that?
LORENZANA: That is not true. Because when we`re going to compare apples to apples. When we`re going to see on the business side aspect, my goal, I reached my goal. The overall goal I couldn`t reach because I was not sent to the training that was required for me to do any consumer deposit accounts. In the banking industry, before you`re allowed to open any type of deposit accounts, you have to go to certain training. Every time I approach my manager and say I need to go training -
BEHAR: What would he say?

LORENZANA: He would say, we are short of staff. I can`t afford to send you.
BEHAR: So they almost didn`t want you to train. But now you`re working for Chase and they`re now threatening to terminate you because you shouldn`t be speaking out about the banking financial industry? I got to go. I`m sorry – I just want to leave you with that out there to ponder that. I hope that`s not true. Good luck to you. We`ll be back in a minute.