A former AEG Presents marketing director sued the entertainment giant Monday, alleging she was wrongfully fired earlier this year for complaining about her boss creating a hostile work environment that included making antisemitic remarks that involved stereotypes of the plaintiff’s ethnic heritage.
Morgan Ann Howard’s Los Angeles Superior Court allegations include wrongful termination, gender and religious discrimination, harassment, retaliation and violations of the state Labor Code. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
An AEG representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Howard’s suit.
Hired as marketing director in March 2023, Howard worked in the comedy department. She was responsible for supervising coordinators as well as managing the marketing strategy and budgets for all shows within her division.
Howard’s overseer was the comedy department’s current vice president. Howard, who is Jewish, was subjected to derogatory and discriminatory statements by her boss regarding her faith, including the use of a longtime stereotypical phase asserting that Jews are overly frugal, the suit states.
Howard’s boss also was dismissive toward her contributions, but praised those of male workers even though they were similar to what the plaintiff proposed, making it hard for her and other women to thrive professionally under his leadership, according to the suit.
When the supervisor asked Howard to postpone her jury duty, she believed he was wrong to do so and informed human resources, according to the suit, which further alleges the boss often yelled at her in front of her colleagues.
Human resources allowed Howard to work remotely pending an investigation, but just days later she was ordered to return to the office, where a human resources representative dismissed the plaintiff’s concerns for her safety by laughing, the suit alleges.
In February of this year, Howard was falsely accused of secretly recording workplace interactions and conversations, according to the suit, which additionally states that the next month she was put on a plan to ostensibly improve her job performance even though she had never been previously told her work was unsatisfactory, the suit states.
Howard believes her April 9 firing was in retaliation for speaking out against her allegedly hostile work environment. She has suffered both financial losses and emotional distress due to being terminated, the suit states.