A Toronto woman has filed a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against her employer, claiming her pregnancy is what motivated the credit union to terminate her.

Late last year, nine months after receiving a promotion at DUCA Financial Services Credit Union, Jennifer Marrello, 38, an employee for more than four years, was let go without cause.

She says her dismissal on Nov. 8 happened a day after she left work early for an appointment at her doctor’s office.

That week her co-workers had noticed she was experiencing signs of pregnancy and suggested she make the medical appointment, her statement of claim says.

Many of her co-workers were likely within earshot on Nov. 6 when she was on her work phone confirming the visit to her physician, her claim states.

Omar Ha-Redeye, her lawyer, says she mentioned the word pregnancy during the phone call. Her period was a few weeks late, and she wasn’t feeling well when she asked to see the doctor.

The doctor ordered blood tests for a subsequent date, and those tests confirmed the pregnancy, her lawyer says.

She is due to give birth later this year.

Marrello received four weeks’ termination pay and continuation of a mortgage discount. In its statement of defence, DUCA says Marrello’s release had nothing to do with pregnancy. Rather, despite ongoing training, Marrello “struggled” in her position and made repeated errors, the credit union says in court documents.

Marrello was dismissed as a result of her “significant performance issues” and the “liability concerns” caused by them and no other reason, the credit union claims.

Marrello and her lawyer say the tasks DUCA is pointing to regarding errors were not solely her responsibility and that DUCA is trying to shift the blame to her.

In an interview, Marrello’s lawyer said given Marrello’s years of service, if it believed she wasn’t a good fit in her new role, the more appropriate response should have been to give her more training or if that wasn’t feasible, a warning. As a last resort a new position should have been found for her within the organization, the lawyer argues.

“As opposed to simply terminating her, coincidentally after finding out she is pregnant,” Ha-Redeye said. He called the timing “very suspicious.”

Marrello is seeking $250,000 in general damages in her lawsuit, filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice in February.

In her statement of claim Marrello says she was told the termination was a “business decision.”

In an interview, Marrello says she was told she was being let go because of changes in her department and because her role was no longer necessary.

After Marrello filed her lawsuit, DUCA’s statement of defence in April said the dismissal was performance-related.

DUCA denies all Marrello’s claims. None of the allegations in Marrello’s suit or DUCA’s response have been tested in court.

Marrello began working there in June 2013 in a front-line role as a member services representative. The credit union provides financial products such as insurance, savings accounts and mortgages. Headquartered in North York, DUCA has 59,000 members and more than $2 billion in assets.

In February 2017 Marrello was promoted to collections administrator. Duties included determining which member accounts were in arrears, preparing notices of arrears, creating delinquency reports and negotiating repayment terms. The job paid her $37,000 a year, and came with bonuses, benefits, a pension, a mortgage discount program and two weeks’ vacation. She was promoted by Sue Di Gironimo, an assistant vice-president.

Marrello, in an interview in the Scarborough home she shares with her husband and his 6-year-old daughter, says she enjoyed her new role.

“ I wanted to learn as much as I could. I felt that as somebody who had previous front-line experience, I might be able to utilize that to make the collections process easier for our members and be able to retain our members as a result,” she says.

Devi Ramlu, a collections administrator who also reported to Di Gironimo, had encouraged Marrello to apply for the job, after Marrello reached out to her, the statement of defence says.

DUCA says Ramlu was Marrello’s peer in her new position, while Marrello claims Ramlu was her “immediate supervisor.”

“Jennifer worked under Devi and reported to her on a daily basis,” says Ha-Redeye, Marrello’s lawyer.

It its statement of defence, DUCA says Ramlu and Di Gironimo trained Marrello last year during the first two and a half months of her new job, and in May and June of that year participated in weekly discussions to put “supports” in place to help Marrello reduce her errors.

The list of errors DUCA cites includes collections letters not being sent when accounts were in arrears, incorrect math on delinquency letters, sending delinquency letters to the wrong address or member, failing to correctly document when a debt was paid, and failing to file documents from the Canada Revenue Agency.

Marrello had a high-level security clearance, so the mistakes were a significant concern, DUCA says in its statement of defence, which noted additional errors in October and November. “In October, Ramlu went to Di Gironimo in tears regarding (Marrello’s) rude behaviour and the high number of errors (Marrello) continued to commit,” the statement says.

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“The fact is Di Gironimo and DUCA no longer had any confidence in (Marrello’s) ability to complete the basic tasks required of a collections administrator.” The Star reached out to Di Gironimo through DUCA’s office but she did not respond.

The credit union says that in October, Di Gironimo approached DUCA about terminating Marrello.

But Marrello and her lawyer dispute those details.

Marrello says she was part of a group and most of her work was reviewed and initialled by Ramlu before being sent out.

“These are not tasks or issues that Jennifer was solely responsible for,” Ha-Redeye says.

In an emailed statement, DUCA’s lawyer, Malcolm MacKillop, said “we do not comment on cases that are before the court.”

For this story the Star also reached out to Ramlu, visited DUCA’s head office, and contacted DUCA board members but did not get responses.

Ha-Redeye says Ramlu spoke supportively about Marrello in the past.

Three months after the promotion, in a May 2017 text exchange the lawyer provided to the Star, Ramlu tells Marrello: “No I (Ramlu) was just like you when I started. You are like me. I made tons of mistakes. Marlene was not so nice. She (complained) about me a lot. Ask Gabby, I had it bad,” Ramlu says, referring to two other DUCA employees.

“You are not a challenge, you are a perfectionist,” Ramlu goes on to tell Marrello in the text exchange.

Ramlu also reached out to Marrello in the spring of 2017 to join a business venture Ramlu was involved in, unconnected to DUCA.

In an April email to Marrello that her lawyer provided to the Star, Ramlu writes:

Hello Jennifer,

Welcome to the New Financial Services Industry. I’m very happy that you decided to test drive this wonderful opportunity.

There is a growing need for financial services educators. I'm looking forward to our business venture in reaching individuals and families who have not planned or prepared enough for the future.

Ramlu goes by the title “independent insurance broker” in the email.

Later, in May, after encouragement from Ramlu, Marrello obtained a licence to sell mutual funds. The plan was to sell for World Financial Group, the business Ramlu was involved with, Marrello says.

But soon after, Marrello says she opted not to sell the funds.