Nafeesa Syeed, a South Asian-American journalist, won her discrimination case against her former employer, Bloomberg —— making New York’s human rights law effective for nonresidents for the first time.
On March 14, 2024, Judge Madeline Singas in Albany, overseeing the New York State Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of Syeed, who claimed being discriminated against when applying for a U.N. reporter job at the financial news publication’s New York bureau in 2018.
As a former Bloomberg national security reporter at its Washington office from 2014 to 2018, Syeed has been an award-winning multimedia journalist with about two decades of journalism experience. She got her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and master’s degree from SOAS University of London. She had also published at least two scoops and three documentaries that are prized in competitive newsrooms like Bloomberg by the time she applied for the U.N. reporter job.
In the lawsuit, which she filed in 2020, two years after quitting her job at the publication, she alleged that Bloomberg “denied her promotion, set her compensation, and created a hostile work environment.” As she could no longer get a promotion in Washington, Syeed applied for various positions at Bloomberg’s New York bureau but failed to get any job.
After she “inquired multiple times” about the U.N. reporter job, Syeed’s managing editor in Washington, D.C. told her that Bloomberg decided not to “convert the U.N. job to a ‘diversity slot'” and the position was filled by a man who had less practical experience than Syeed.
Prior to the ruling, the “impact requirement” of New York’s anti-discrimination laws, the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), and the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) only applied to residents of the New York State. For the “impact requirement,” the plaintiffs must prove that the discriminatory conduct had an “impact” within New York. This means that nonresidents who were applying for jobs in New York could not prove that employment discrimination had an impact within New York and were not protected by these laws.
In this landmark decision of Syeed v. Bloomberg, the New York State Court ruled that “the plaintiff could satisfy the impact requirement without living or working in New York City or State at the time of the discriminatory acts.” This ruling expands the scope of New York’s anti-discrimination laws and has far-reaching implications for human rights lawsuits across the country. It allows people with no previous or present geographical connections with New York to file lawsuits against their prospective employers during the hiring process.
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