Whether Long Island RailRoad officials had a legitimate reason for paying a female clerical workerless than her male counterparts � or whether this was merely a pretextfor gender discrimination � is genuine issue of fact that should have survivedsummary judgment, the Second Circuit has ruled.
A unanimous court found thatSouthern District Senior Judge Robert J. Ward erred in granting the LIRRsummary judgment on a claim under the Equal Pay Act, and the court remandedthe case for further proceedings in Belfi v LIRR, 98-9002.In 1990, Susan Belfi receiveda permanent appointment to the position of Office Engineer-Signal in theSignal Department at the LIRR and received a salary of $40,691. At thesame time, her Office-Engineer counterparts in the Communications and ElectricTraction division, both males, received $52,794 and $53,046 respectively.
