A former Osaic employee claimed her supervisors at the firm discriminated against her based on her Russian national origin, according to a complaint filed in New York federal court last week.
In the complaint, New York resident Alla Bronskaya claims she joined Osaic as an executive assistant on Feb. 12, 2024. According to the complaint, Bronskaya is originally from Russia but moved to the United States nearly 30 years ago and is an American citizen. Bronskaya noted that Osaic did not know her national origin when she was hired.
In the week after her hiring, Bronskaya claims she met with Lana Cafaro, her immediate supervisor, several times. During these meetings, Cafaro allegedly asked where Bronskaya was born, where she learned English and how many languages she spoke.
According to the complaint, on Feb. 22, Cafaro sent Bronskaya an email detailing a “new set of workplace expectations” applicable only to Bronskaya that no other executive assistant had to follow.
“On March 1, March 4 and March 12, 2024, Ms. Cafaro referred to my language use as unprofessional, questioned my ability to ‘understand’ English, and asked me to copy her on all communication so she could proofread my writing,” the complaint read.
Several days later, Cafaro allegedly tried to put Bronskaya on a performance improvement plan and threatened to fire her, claiming she used “exclamation points, emojis and ‘non-standard spacing’” (though Bronskaya claimed she could provide evidence of similar language use in communications from other, American-born executive assistants).
After the alleged threat, Bronskaya asked to be transferred to another manager. In May, Cafaro allegedly asked Bronskaya to return the company-issued mobile phone, making it more difficult to respond quickly to requests. Nevertheless, Cafaro criticized her for having a “slow” response time of 13 minutes. (Bronskaya claimed other assistants could take hours to respond.)
In June, she was transferred to Brian Pearce, a senior vice president of risk management with the firm, but her situation didn’t improve. In August, Bronskaya received a final warning letter from Pearce, which she claimed contained false allegations.
By September, Bronskaya contacted the firm’s human resources department, claiming the comments about her language had crossed a line. The following month, Chief Human Resources Officer Jeffrey Green notified her that he’d found no evidence of discrimination. According to the complaint, Bronskaya was fired several days later.
Osaic declined to comment, citing policy not to do so regarding ongoing litigation.
Bronskaya requested the court award her $30,000 in damages, including her loss in annual salary, bonuses and in unpaid wages, as well as punitive damages due to what he alleged was Osaic’s “deliberate and harmful pattern of ignoring” her rights, which she said impacted her financially and physically (claiming the stress of the situation resulted in a case of shingles).
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