Employee Sues New York Public Library For $4.6M For Placing His Large Frame At A Small Desk

A New York City resident is suing a library in Manhattan after allegedly being forced to work at a desk that was too small for his frame. According to The New York Post, William Martin, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 360 pounds, filed a lawsuit against the New York Public Library after stating that he was “traumatized” by sitting at a desk that was too small.

The paperwork was filed in a Brooklyn Federal courthouse. He is asking for $4.6 million and accusing his superiors of discrimination and harassment.

Martin started working at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on Fifth Avenue in October 2021, where he was assigned to the first-floor service desk. He was hired to work as a library information assistant and complained about the size of his desk.

“All I sought was just a service desk with the appropriate accommodation given my physical attributes,” he stated in the lawsuit.

His union

helped get him assigned to different service desks within the midtown library, but nearly two years later, he was placed back at the cramped first-floor desk after a new assistant director was hired in June 2023. After complaining and involving an attorney, things worsened for Martin. He alleges that the assistant director “dramatically increased” how often Martin was assigned to the small desk, which, he said, was “detrimental to his health and safety,” according to the court document. He felt that it was the director’s “way to bully William and intimidate him, showing him ‘who is the boss.’”

A few months later, Martin was suspended after being “falsely accused” of sleeping on the job. With this action, he requested a transfer and medical leave for anxiety and depression. He said his “mental health has been damaged to such extent that . . . he would tremble just at the thought of going back to work.”

Martin is asking the judge to force the library to grant him a leave and compensation for what he went through.