Lawyer: Con Ed flips switch, offers job after Instagram flap
Samantha Chirichella, 26, of West Islip, has filed a lawsuit saying Con Edison withdrew its job offer to her because she posted "sexually explicit material" on social media. Credit: Samantha Chirichella
A West Islip woman who said in a lawsuit that Con Edison withdrew its job offer to her because she posted “sexually explicit material” on social media will get the position after all, her attorney said.
Days after Samantha Chirichella, 26, filed her suit in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, the utility late Tuesday said it will hire her to a $70,000 position as a staff investigator, according to attorney Arthur Schwartz of Manhattan.
“After we filed suit and there was a rush of media interest, counsel for Con Edison called and said that the company had rethought the decision and was now offering Ms. Chirichella an investigator position with their Law Department,” Schwartz said in a news release. “We appreciate Con Edison’s rapid resolution of this dispute.”
Nothing that Chirichella’s father is a lifer at Con Ed, Schwartz said his client will take the job and the utility “will not regret this decision.”
In March, the utility pulled its job offer because of a photograph Chirichella posted on her Instagram account three years earlier.
She filed her lawsuit last Friday, saying in court papers the Instagram photograph was not sexually explicit but a “recognized piece of fine artwork from a gallery show” of Chirichella’s friend.
The photo posted on social media is a mirror image of a nude woman lying next to herself, with breasts visible; the image is not of Chirichella, as reported by some other publications, Schwartz said.
A Con Edison spokesman on Wednesday said the utility is “committed to maintaining a workforce that promotes diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity in compliance with all state, local and federal hiring laws.
“We reviewed our decision carefully and decided to offer the job to this applicant. We are taking a closer look at our screening processes.”
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