The University of Memphis faces charges of discrimination after a vice president allegedly fired an employee because of his age and gender, according to a lawsuit filed in Shelby County Circuit Court.
The lawsuit accuses Linda Bonnin, vice president for communications, public relations and marketing, of making disparaging remarks about the age of a U of M employee to members of her staff just before firing him.
“My communications director is 64 years old,” Bonnin allegedly said to co-workers according to the lawsuit. “What do you think the chances are that he is going to do any social networking?”
Bonnin fired Curt Guenther, a 19-year employee of the University. She ordered Guenther, now 65, to clean out his office by the end of the day on April 23, 2013.
Deborah Baker, a retired media relations director for the U of M, at the time described this type of termination as “reserved for someone who does something harmful to the workplace, extremely disrespectful or dangerous.”
“That kind of treatment seems very wrong for someone like Curt,” Baker said.
Bonnin told Guenther the dismissal was due to his job performance.
But a few days later, Bonnin told Jennifer Rorie, a former female-student intern, that she was specifically looking for woman to fill Guenther’s old position, according to the lawsuit.
“I have just fired Curt Guenther as director of Communications Services and I want to replace him with somebody younger and female,” Bonnin said to Rorie, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit argues that Bonnin’s actions were age and gender discrimination and violated both the Tennessee Human Rights Act and Tennessee’s Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. If the lawsuit succeeds, the University could owe Guenther backpay, emotional damage payment and reinstatement to his former position.
After the lawsuit was filed in July, it was announced that Bonnin would leave the U of M in late September to become a vice president of strategic communications at Louisiana State University.
In this move, Bonnin leaves behind her top position in the U of M’s communications division and her $160,000 annual salary, which she’s had since July 2013. When U of M President Shirley Raines promoted Bonnin from interim to full vice president, Raines also boosted her salary from $96,506.64 to $146,120 in July 2012.
