The streaming platform of Fox Corp. that Tubi was accused in a gender discrimination case of paying top female executives 28% less than their male counterparts and offering them fewer promotions.
Sarah Ekstrom, Tubi’s former chief people officer, said in a proposed class-action suit that Tubi removed her position and fired her four months after she raised concerns about the company’s treatment of women.
Fox bought the San Francisco-based company in 2020 after selling its film and TV studios to Walt Disney Co. Ekstrom, who was hired in February 2022, soon began hearing complaints from female colleagues about their treatment and pay, according to her suit.
In addition to being paid less, the female executives complained that the male executives were often rude and rude to them, according to the lawsuit.
“Tubi is a streaming solution built on the Fox model — a toxic corporate culture of misogyny that profits at the expense of its female employees,” Ekstrom’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.
Tubi said it would not discuss the details of the pending lawsuit, but would “vigorously defend” the company against the claims it called “frivolous.”
Fox has been hit by a long line of sex discrimination and harassment lawsuits, from a 2017 lawsuit against the late Roger Ailes, then chairman of Fox News Channel, to a March complaint by a producer of Tucker Carlson’s former show.
Ekstrom said that as the head of the personnel department, he came to see that the pay disparity for women in Tubi was systemic. Top “C-Suite” female executives are paid the same as male colleagues who rank below them on the organizational chart, according to the suit.
Interest Could Be Worth $3 Billion, Fox Possibly More
The case is Ekstrom v. Fox Corporation, CGC23606599, California Superior Court (San Francisco).
Photo: Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
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