Tiffany Celotto is a traffic signal technician for the New York State Department of Transportation.
Back in December, she first spoke to 2 On Your Side, when she decided to join the #MeToo movement, to speak out about alleged incidents of sex discrimination in her workplace.
"He would not call me by my name," Celotto said of her former supervisor. "He would call me 'her,' 'she,' 'the woman.' He would call me anything but Tiffany."
After that story aired, the NYSDOT issued the following statement:
DOT has zero tolerance for harassment of any kind in the workplace. Accordingly, after a thorough investigation of the facts in this matter, the agency took immediate and appropriate disciplinary action against the employee in question, who is no longer in state service.
But Celotto says she filed her complaint with the NYS Division of Human Rights, not just against her former supervisor, but the NYSDOT and State of New York, as well.
Celotto tells 2 On Your Side they all failed to follow laws meant to protect working mothers, "That's completely unacceptable."
We sat down with Tiffany again, in early February, to get an update on her case. As of January, it was a full year since she and her lawyer, Lindy Korn, first filed their formal complaint with the NYSDHR. But they are still waiting for the case to move forward. They say they haven't heard from the State of New York.
Tiffany understands it could take time, but she says she is willing to see this case all the way to trial, not just for herself, but for all women who face workplace discrimination.
"They don't have to feel this way. There are laws and you do have rights and you need to exercise those rights."
In her complaint, she documented the alleged harassment which she felt got worse after her former supervisor found out she was pregnant.
"I had tried to provide a doctor's note explaining the details of my pregnancy," Celotto recalls, "and explaining what I could and could not do. And he told me to take the doctor's note and to get out of his office...it was not his problem."
When she returned from maternity leave, Celotto claims there was similar hostility towards her request to pump breast milk at work.
"He was very aggressive about it, and I wasn't allowed anywhere to do that."
New York State's lactation laws, according to experts, are some of the strongest in the country. What it has in common with federal laws is that employers must provide a clean, private place for mothers to pump that cannot be a restroom or a toilet stall.
Despite this, Celotto says she was forced to pump in various restrooms because the NYSDOT, a state agency, allegedly did not provide what the law requires. In her complaint, she documented how she wasn't given the break times for pumping required by NYS law.
She reportedly tried to bring her concerns to supervisors. She took pictures of the bathrooms and kept track of locations she allegedly pumped in.
"I knew that I needed to document," explains Celotto. "I knew I needed to provide pictures, I needed to provide documentation of where and when I had to pump and I needed to make sure that I just had a papertrail."
2 On Your Side reached out to the NYSDOT, but they declined an on-camera interview. They did send a statement which was almost identical to the state sent in December:
DOT has zero tolerance for harassment or any type of discrimination in the workplace. Accordingly, after a thorough investigation of all the facts in this matter, the agency took immediate and appropriate disciplinary action against the employee in question, who is no longer in state service.
Friday morning, NYSDOT spokesperson Susan Surdej sent this update to that statement:
"The complaints filed by Ms. Celotto related to her position at NYSDOT are being investigated per the appropriate State and/or Federal laws."
Tiffany still works for the NYSDOT. Although she admits it's difficult working for an agency she has an open complaint against, she says she's not willing to part with a job she feels she worked hard to get.
Celotto: "I did nothing wrong."
A 2 On Your Side investigation recently found that the NYSDOT has had 21 complaints over the past few years that are being handled internally.