 Jessica Bussert (who formerly was known as Josh ... and formerly was ... male) has instigated the biggest ever legal claim to be brought over the subject of a gender reassignment. Bussert is a transsexual and is seeking $900,000 from Hitachi Data Systems under the Discrimination Regulations of 1999. Bussert additionally is suing Hitachi in the United States for $3.6 million in damages. Bussert claims that the company demoted her from her high level IT job after she underwent facial and breast surgeries. The regulations cited in the complaint do apply to any employee who intends to undergo a gender reassignment procedure, who is going through the process or who intended to undertake gender reassignment. Bussert relocated to the U.K. from the midwestern United States because she believed that people in the U.K. would be more accepting of transgender people. She made the international move after a 19 year old transsexual was murdered and set on fire near where Bussert lived. Following six weeks off from work for facial feminization and surgeries in March of 2005, Bussert claims she was demoted effectively, after gender reassignment surgery, because she had to report to a different person who had been her equal prior to the operations. Additionally, she contends she was assigned administrative tasks such as those performed by secretaries. With that said, her salary remained the same at $160,000 annually. |
