NBC Wants ‘Tonight Show’ Discrimination Suit Moved To Arbitration, Or Dismissed

Lawyers for NBCUniversal and Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon bandleader Questlove asked the New York Supreme Court to move a discrimination suit filed by two former show crew members to arbitration or dismiss it altogether.

The filing (read it here) came today in response to a suit filed in January by Kurt Decker and Michael Cimino, longtime camera operators who claim they were fired after both were recipients of “an unsolicited racist and misogynist text message from a Tonight Show stagehand” last summer. The suit alleges that The Roots bandleader Questlove demanded both be terminated, and that the band’s bassist Mark Kelly was not disciplined though he is also said to have received the texts. “NBC acquiesced to Questlove’s overtly discriminatory demand,” the suit said.

NBCUniversal and Questlove, aka Ahmir Khalib Thompson, argued in a joint memorandum of law that “As former employees of NBC and members of the NABET-CWA union, Plaintiffs are bound by the grievance and arbitration procedures set forth in the CBA between NBC and NABET-CWA,” arguing that the proper venue to hear the case is via “NBC’s alternative dispute resolution procedure known as Solutions.”

It calls for the court to either dismiss the action and compel the plaintiffs to arbitration, or “alternatively, staying this litigation and compelling plaintiffs to arbitration.”