This post was updated at 6:42 p.m. with some background on the PHRC process and more detail about the complaint.

Flora Posteraro, the former abc27 News anchor whose dismissal has roiled the midstate's social media world, has now filed sex discrimination and retaliation complaints against her former employer.

Posteraro, a complaint to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission confirms, lost her job March 12 after refusing an involuntary transfer to a weekend anchor / reporting beat.

That information jibes with reports PennLive had received in interviews with other people familiar with Posteraro's situation this week.

But Posteraro alleged Thursday her reassignment took place only after, and in retaliation for, her participation in an August complaint to the station's human resources offices about the station's general manager, Robert Bee.

Bee arrived at WHTM, the Harrisburg, Lancaster, York market's ABC affiliate, in January 2017, shortly after the station was acquired by Nexstar Media Group, Inc., of Irving, Texas.

In that internal complaint, which is also referenced in Posteraro's case, Bee is accused of making several disparaging comments about women in the news department.

They included:

References to one female anchor as a "mean bitch."

Telling a former news director that one of the station's female reporters looked like a "fat pig" on the air.

Making unspecified racial and sexist comments about the station's morning anchors, and

Describing women who did not follow his restrictive dress code as "street walkers."

Another triggering event, according to Posteraro's complaint, was an ongoing campaign by Bee to get female on-air talent to stop wearing sleeveless dresses because, "no one wants to look at flabby arms."

Aside from the work environment claims referenced above, the complaint notes male on-air staff at WHTM were treated differently in respect to wardrobe issues, and scheduling.

Several WHTM employees, including Posteraro, were interviewed as part of the summer 2017 complaint about Bee, but it was not immediately clear what Nexstar's findings were.

PennLive's attempts to reach the company Thursday were unsuccessful.

Posteraro, however, clearly believes her participation in that complaint, along with several other "respectful" discussions she'd had with Bee about his treatment of female staff, had a direct tie to her reassignment.

Posteraro alleges in her PHRC complaint that when she was offered a new, two-year contract on Jan. 31, 2018, it contained the same rate of pay but a demotion from her longstanding position as anchor of abc27's noon and 5 p.m. weekday newscasts.

"The decision to move Posteraro was made after and because of Posteraro's complaints," the complaint asserts.

Posteraro filed a second internal complaint with Nexstar on Feb. 5, in which she claimed her demotion "was retaliation for her objections to Bee's treatment of female employees."

In that case, the company concluded - after what Posteraro and her attorney contend was an incomplete investigation - that there was no retaliation.

Posteraro -- whose prior contract with WHTM expired on Dec. 24 -- subsequently informed the station she was not quitting, and was willing to stay in her current role as a daytime anchor.

But on March 12, station executives told her she no longer worked for the company, and that they considered her to have resigned.

Posteraro maintains in her PHRC complaint that between Jan. 31 and Feb. 26 she was given four different explanations regarding her demotion, which "belie that the real reason for the demotion was in retaliation for Posteraro's complaints about Bee's treatment of women."

PennLive reached out to Bee for a response to the human relations complaint Thursday afternoon, and he declined comment.

Bee, described as having 35 years in broadcast and sales management, came to Harrisburg from Wilkes-Barre, where he had served since 2012 as vice president and general manager of WBRE-TV, another Nexstar property.

From 2003 to 2012, Bee served as director of sales at WTAE-TV (ABC) in Pittsburgh, and he had also worked at WGAL-TV in Lancaster, WXIX-TV in Cincinnati, and WLIG-TV on Long Island, New York.

Posteraro's PHRC complaint alleges discrimination on the basis of sex and retaliation under Pennsylvania's Human Relations Act.

Once the formal complaint is served on Bee and Nexstar, they will have 60 days to file a formal answer.

Human Relations complaints then typically move to a fact-finding conference, in which both parties present evidence and documents to support their cases. It is also a point where some complaints get resolved.

If commission staff finds there is probable cause for the charges alleged, that can trigger a public hearing in which testimony is taken under oath.

PHRC complaints can also become a prelude to a civil suit filed in county court.

Posteraro, 54, has been in the television news business since graduating from California University of Pennsylvania, with stints in Clarksburg, W.Va., Johnstown, Wilkes-Barre and Philadelphia.

She started working at WHTM in August 1997 as an anchor / reporter, and had been firmly ensconced in the daytime anchor role there for years until this month.

Her sudden departure, with no public explanation from the station to date, has hit the station's viewers hard.

It has already been followed by the creation of an "I Stand With Flora" Facebook page that has been the focal point of a cyber-pushback, along with public expressions of support from current and former colleagues.

A publicly-traded company, Nexstar reported profits of $1.1 billion in 2016. The company acquired WHTM last year, as part of a larger acquisition.

It describes itself on its Facebook page as "the largest TV station operator in the country," with "171 full power stations in 100 markets," reaching nearly 39 percent of all "television households."

Complaint filed by Flora Posteraro against former employer abc27 by PennLive on Scribd