Sylvia Lind is the highest-ranking Hispanic female employee of Major League Baseball. She filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the MLB regarding issues within the workplace environment, specifically with Commissioner Bud Selig and executive Frank Robinson.
Lind is claiming she continues to face discrimination because she's been passed over for promotions and has been underpaid since 1995 in an industry "dominated by white men." The 48-year-old works in the Office of the Commissioner as the league's director of baseball initiatives and claims the league "has created a hostile work environment for her because of her age."
As a result, her lawsuit that was filed in Manhattan federal court "seeks unspecified damages for what she describes as a failure by the league to consider, interview, appoint and promote qualified Hispanic women to managerial and executive positions," according to ESPN.
The league has yet to comment on the lawsuit, which lists Selig and Robinson as the defendants. She claims her situation worsened when Robinson was hired in 2012 because he criticized her writing and other skills. She mentioned Robinson is paid $1 million annually, yet "lacked educational credentials, professional license and executive experience to qualify for the job." The 79-year-old Robinson, a Hall of Famer, played 21 MLB seasons and was a two-time MVP with the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles.
Lind added there are only 12 women, two of whom are Hispanic, out of the 52 executives who are of vice president status or higher. She began working for the MLB in 1995 with a starting salary of $43,000 and remains the only Hispanic female lawyer in the legal department since the time of her hiring.
"While plaintiff has always maintained a professional demeanor to the public and endeavored to do what is in the best interest for MLB, it has been extremely disheartening, utterly demoralizing and extraordinarily taxing on her, both emotionally and psychologically, to almost singlehandedly perpetuate what she has known to be the diversity and equal employment opportunity falsehood," the lawsuit said.
