Cigna Contracting Manager Files Gender-Discrimination Lawsuit

A Cigna Corp. (CI) employee filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the health insurer Thursday alleging gender discrimination against female workers and seeking at least $100 million in damages.

In the complaint filed in U.S. district court in Boston, Bretta Karp, a long-time Cigna provider-contracting manager, alleges the insurer maintains a work environment hostile to women and discriminates against them in promotions, pay, training, evaluations and employment terms and conditions.

Karp, of Shrewsbury, Mass., has worked for Cigna from 1997 to the present. Her lawsuit, which follows discrimination charges she filed last year with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claims that pervasive gender discrimination prevented her from advancing into better-paying positions in spite of strong performance reviews.

She also asserts she was subjected to gender-based hostility from men with whom she worked.

She is represented by the law firm Sanford Wittels & Heisler LLP of Washington, D.C., which last year represented plaintiffs who won a nearly $253 million jury verdict in an employment discrimination case against Novartis AG (NVS). Novartis later settled the case for $175 million.

The complaint seeks certification of a national class and a Massachusetts class of current and former female Cigna employees.

"We have just received the complaint and are reviewing it," Philadelphia-based Cigna said in a statement. "We are committed to diversity and equal opportunity; our workplace policies expressly prohibit discrimination in any form and we intend to fully defend against the complaint."

-By Dinah Wisenberg Brin, Dow Jones Newswires, 215-982-5582; [e-mail]