Dawn Vitale, a former saleswoman at Central Avenue Nissan Inc., claims that the Yonkers auto dealership concealed that salesmen were paid salaries while she was paid only commissions.
Vitale accused the dealership and co-owners James Rourke and Mark Brennan of gender discrimination and retaliation in a lawsuit filed June 1 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
Vitale said the dealership “humiliated and degraded” her.
Central Avenue Nissan did not respond to an email asking for its side of the story.
Vitale was hired in 2016 as a used car sales manager, according to the complaint, and was paid 8% commissions on car sales.
When she asked Rourke, the general manager, about a base salary, he allegedly replied, “Sales managers don”™t get paid a salary.”
She was promoted to general sales manager in 2017 and paid 3% commissions on new and used car sales. She inquired about a base salary, according to the complaint, and Rourke said again that sales managers don”™t get salaries.
Then she discovered that two recently fired salesmen had been getting salaries plus commissions. Once again, she alleges, Rourke denied her request for a base salary.
Every salesman and male manager were getting a base salary, she said. Even trainees she hired were paid $800 a week plus commissions. Only Vitale, the lone woman in the sales department, got no base salary.
She complained of gender discrimination to Rourke, the lawsuit states, and he agreed to pay her $500 a week plus 3% commissions, still “far less than any of the male sales managers who had less experience and less seniority.”
Thereafter, Brennan allegedly became aggressive with her, waving papers in her face, for instance, screaming at her, and standing very close to her. She interpreted the alleged “newly aggressive behavior” as retaliation for voicing concerns about gender discrimination.
Rourke, according to the complaint, emailed her a picture of a topless woman, and when she confronted him he dismissed it as a joke.
Vitale resigned in November 2019, “after more than a year of retaliatory actions ”¦ and still not earning as much as any of her male counterparts.”
She is demanding lost wages and benefits and damages for injury, distress, suffering and injury to her reputation.
Vitale is represented by Brooklyn attorney Jessenia Maldonado.
