Legal Issues in Employment Discrimination at Little Florence Art Gallery

The Case of Lorraine

Question 1 Lorraine has just graduated from a Bachelor or Arts majoring in Art History. She has a specialisation in 15th century Italian artwork. It has been quite tricky for Lorraine to find gainful employment in her area. Graduate positions that specialise in 15th century Italian artwork are few and far-between. Given this, Lorraine is very excited to see an advertisement on Art-WORK.com, a popular website for art-related job advertisements. The advertisement is for an entry-level position working as an assistant to John Bochetto, the director of art at Little Florence Art Gallery. The advertisement says the following: Amazing opportunity to work with one of the most esteemed Italian art experts. As assistant to the director of art, John Bochetto, you will have the opportunity to travel, study and develop your career. Training will be provided and you will work side-by-side with specialists in the area and will work directly with the Faccini collection in the coming months. Apply now!” Lorraine applies and is very happy to receive an interview. At the interview she meets with a representative from HR, Rhey and a junior art advisor, Billings. In the interview both Rhey and Billings explain what the job will be like. Billings says that all new employees are given training to work at the gallery and are funded a trip to Florence in order to further develop their specialisations. Rhey tells Lorraine that she will love working with John Bochetto because he is very dedicated to his protégés and ensures that they are immersed in the artwork and the environment. Billings agrees with this. Without reservation Lorraine takes the job and signs a very simple employment contract that states hours of work, remuneration and entitlement to vacations etc. She starts work the next day. She is surprised but pleased to find that one of her fellow graduates, Henry, is starting on the same day as her and in the same position. They went to university together and worked as partners on multiple occasions. The first big event of the day is meeting John Bochetto. While John is polite but aloof to Lorraine, John is quite friendly to Henry. Within the first two hours of the day, Lorraine is shown to a desk and given a mountain of paperwork to tackle. Henry, on the other hand, spends the entire day with John inspecting various pieces of art. This pattern continues for six months. Lorraine finds she is given administrative duties only and Henry has been given four opportunities to attend gallery shows with John, has been given training on how to discuss various artwork with clients and has been promised a study trip to Florence within the next three months. Further to this Lorraine receives an email from HR stating that because she has less experience than Henry, she will need to take a refresher course within the next six months. Lorraine is aghast. She was told there would be study opportunities in this position, but going back to study what she already knows is not what she had in mind and her and Henry had the exact same qualifications coming into the position. Further she has not been allowed in the same room as the Faccini collection due to its preciousness and fragility. Lorraine decides to approach Rhey from HR and John to discuss these issues. Rhey is very quiet, but John explains why this is happening. He says that he has a firm belief that 15th century Italian artwork is very inappropriate for young females due to the high level of nudity in the artwork. Because of this, he does not see fit that she is given the same position as Henry in terms of direct contact and discussion of artwork. Further he explains in regard to the Faccini collection that only art associates aged over 50 years of age are allowed to work with the original pieces as they are the only ones that have enough experience. Lorraine is very upset. After reading the advertisement and attending the interview, she thought she had a pretty good idea of what the position would be like. Lorraine comes to you for advice on the following: a) Whether Lorraine is able to rely on what was advertised by Little Florence Art Gallery and what was said in the interview - consider this under both common law and statute. (15 marks) b) Whether Lorraine is able to bring a discrimination claim against either John, Little Florence Art Gallery or both. (10 marks) Question 2 (15 marks) Trey is a senior art executive at Little Florence Art Gallery. He has worked at the gallery for 15 years and started as a junior intern and slowly made his way to being a senior art executive in charge of the department of 14th century Italian art. He has been a senior executive for the last 6 years. He has recently found out that the gallery has decided to restructure. The restructure proposes to amalgamate the departments of the 10th to 15th centuries of Italian art into one department. The director of the department will be John Bochetto and John will also be the only senior executive in the department. All the other executives will become art associates. For Trey this would mean a downgrade in his position. An associate is generally for someone who has work between 5-10 years at a gallery, while Trey has worked 15. Further the pay is lower and the hours are longer. The work is also different. Rather than liaising and communicating with ‘big’ clients, Trey will now be dealing with public gallery viewings and general inquiries. Trey will also now have to answer to John as his supervisor in the gallery, when they have been in equal positions for the last five years. The gallery has offered Trey this new position under the restructure, and given all the considerations Trey has decided not to accept the position. As a result of this, Little Florence Art Gallery has fired Trey. Trey comes to you for advice. Advise Trey.