Sensitivity trainer flouted own ethics, employee says

A company that provides translation services and cultural sensitivity training to other organizations is being accused of sexual discrimination and racial insensitivity in its own ranks.

Nataly Kelly, 31, of Nashua, the former director of product development for NetworkOmni Multilingual Communications Inc. of California filed a sexual discrimination and retaliation complaint with the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission yesterday.

Kelly, who mostly telecommuted from her home in Nashua, says her supervisor made sexual comments and gestures that made her uncomfortable when they met in person.

She also said company executives ignored her complaints that she and other female employees were sexually harassed or discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. When she persisted, the company retaliated by blocking publication of her book on telephone interpreting, she said.

Last month, Kelly also filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Concord alleging copyright infringement and wrongful termination, saying she felt she had no choice but to resign because her supervisor had become so hostile. She also accused the company of interfering with her efforts to obtain other work after she resigned in April.

Company spokeswoman Tammy Gentry said she was not able to comment yesterday. Alexa Hohensee, corporate counsel for NetworkOmni, said the company was not commenting for now. Matthew Porter, a Boston lawyer representing the company in the federal litigation, did not return a telephone message.

Both the complaint and the lawsuit say NetworkOmni's in-house lawyer agreed the company had no legal right to her book, which Kelly said was mostly written before she became a full-time employee in 2005.

But in April, five days after she resigned, the company wrote a threatening letter to Kelly's publisher stating the book was essentially company property and contained confidential and proprietary business information, her lawsuit said.

As a result, the book's release - scheduled for last month - has been postponed until the dispute is resolved, the lawsuit said.

The company has asked the U.S. District Court in Concord to dismiss the suit or transfer it to the District of Central California, arguing Kelly cannot sue for copyright infringement, because the company has not copied her work, according to court records.

Kelly is seeking a declaration that she owns the rights to the book - an ordinary contract dispute about whether the terms of her employment make the book company property or not, NetworkOmni said.

To bolster her discrimination complaint with the state, Kelly included photos allegedly showing the company's top two human resources executives dressed up for a 2005 corporate Halloween party as a black pimp and a white prostitute. The "pimp," a white woman wearing blackface and sporting a fake gold tooth, won the prize for best costume, the complaint said.

"These actions clearly demonstrate that discriminatory views of minorities and women permeate the corporate culture," the complaint said.

Kelly said she had directed many of her complaints about discrimination to the two human resources executives. She said she did not attend the party and only learned of the women's costumes recently when someone gave her the photos.

One of the products she developed for NetworkOmni was a training program in "cultural competence" for clients, such as doctors and nurses, to help them deal sensitively and knowledgeably with people of various nationalities and ethnic groups.

"I was completely shocked because here I worked to develop programs to combat exactly this type of thing," she said in a telephone interview yesterday.

By KATHARINE WEBSTER

The Associated Press