Fired Gay Employee Sues Mars For Discrimination

A Hunterdon County woman and former Mars, Inc. employee is suing the Hackettstown company for wrongful termination, alleging she was fired because of her sexual orientation, according to lehighvalleylive.com.

Hampton resident Theresa Kwiecinski says she was fired in September, 2011 after coworkers discovered she was gay, according to court documents obtained by The Express-Times. Kwiecinski worked for Mars, Inc. for approximately a decade before noticing a difference in treatment, the report said.

Earlier this year, Mars was named by Forbes Magazine as one of the top-100 companies to work for in 2013. The private, Hackettstown-based manufacturer of brands like M&M and Combos was founded in 1958.

Kwiecinski was a commercial manager for external manufacturing and began receiving poor performance reviews for the first time in her time at Mars after a week-long company conference in which colleagues learned of her sexual orientation, the report says.