Allegations of Harassment and Age Discrimination at Equinox
Eric Houston, a 68-year-old personal trainer at Equinox in the Upper West Side, claims he faced continuous sexual harassment from a female colleague, which he asserts led to his dismissal.
As the leading trainer at the facility, Houston is expected to earn $130,000 in 2024, having conducted an impressive 200 sessions just last December. He has maintained that trouble started when fellow trainer Dianna Scotece began to flirt with him after he joined the gym in 2019. When he did not reciprocate her advances, she, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, turned to management instead.
Scotece, who is 51 years old, allegedly made comments such as, “Just standing there and looking pretty,” during a staff demonstration. Moreover, other reports suggested she attempted to block Houston’s path in these interactions, leading to unwanted physical contact. Additionally, there was an incident where she grabbed a businessman Houston had refused to collaborate with.
Initially, Houston felt unsupported as management overlooked his complaints about Scotece. He noted, “I was called to the manager’s office once a month, where I got apologies and was told I was doing well. They recognized that she was the primary source of complaints regarding me.”
However, everything shifted in April 2024 when a new management team took over. Houston, who previously had a notable career as a Grammy-nominated concert pianist and playwright, faced comments from the new director suggesting that having an older trainer was unfavorable for the gym’s image.
They urged him to reduce his workload and even stopped tracking how many sessions each trainer completed. Unfortunately, this all culminated in his firing in January, following Scotece’s accusation that Houston yelled at her while blocking her path.
Houston believes this was a pretext for his dismissal and a product of Scotece’s allegations, stating this was about getting rid of an older trainer who had filed a discrimination lawsuit. His attorney, Jeff Calendar, expressed hope that the lawsuit would prompt changes in Equinox’s business practices, emphasizing that companies need accountability for violating employee rights in New York City.
