She came back from maternity leave Monday. By Thursday, HR had her on a plan
A former Westinghouse manager says she was fired for line dancing at a work event - while male colleagues who took body shots kept their jobs.
Rucha Kale, who spent more than nine years at Westinghouse Electric Company, filed a sex discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation lawsuit on May 4, 2026 in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The complaint cites Title VII and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
Kale started at Westinghouse as a Program Manager in April 2015 and worked her way up to Commercial Manager in the Reactor Services division by November 2022, with promotions to Outage Manager in 2017 and Senior Specialist in 2021 along the way. The complaint says she received steady positive reviews and was flagged as top talent.
In June 2023, her supervisor wrote her a recommendation for the Next-UP program, described in the complaint as a program for women in the nuclear power industry ready for director-level roles. In October 2023, the Vice President of Sales told her she was a frontrunner for her manager's job, the filing states.
Then she got pregnant with her second child.
Kale alleges she was hospitalized in January 2024 with pre-eclampsia, took four weeks of short-term disability before giving birth on February 14, 2024, and returned from parental leave on May 20, 2024. Three days later, she says, her supervisor and an HR representative pulled her into a meeting and placed her on a "Behavioral Action Plan." The plan flagged concerns about "active listening," "compromise," and "teamwork." When she asked for specific examples, her supervisor could not provide any, according to the complaint. The required biweekly check-ins that followed produced only positive feedback, the filing states.
The firing came about six weeks later, and the stated reason had nothing to do with the behavioral plan.
In June 2024, Kale attended the Pressurized Water Reactor Industry Working Group Conference in San Antonio. She was the only female Westinghouse employee there, the complaint says. After a client dinner, the group went to a bar called Coyote Ugly. Kale alleges she joined a country line dance with seven to ten other women, was sober, and did nothing sexual or inappropriate.
The complaint describes a sharply different scene around her male colleagues. According to the filing, one took body shots from female bartenders on multiple occasions, drank beer funnels with another employee, and grabbed a female bartender's ankle while she danced on the bar - conduct the complaint says got him removed by bar staff. Kale alleges she helped that same colleague close his tab and get back to the hotel.
On July 2, 2024, Kale walked into what she thought was a routine Behavioral Action Plan review. Instead, the complaint says, she was handed a termination letter that was read out loud, with no questions and no discussion. The letter cited "inappropriate and unprofessional behavior at a Westinghouse sponsored event" - specifically the line dancing. The male colleague who had covered her maternity leave was placed in her role shortly after, according to the filing.
Kale alleges the male employees she named received only "corrective actions" after she filed her EEOC charge - actions the complaint says do not go in personnel files and are not treated as discipline.
The complaint also pulls in older allegations. It says lewd pictures and drawings were publicly displayed at the Waltz Mill facility in fall 2021 and again in June 2024 with no investigation, that a male colleague refused to work with her in October 2023 and faced no consequences, and that a 2020 sexual harassment complaint she filed was deemed "unfounded" despite the accused having been banned from other sites over similar complaints.
Kale is represented by Amy E. Mathieu of HKM Employment Attorneys LLP. She is seeking back pay, front pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorney's fees, with damages demanded in excess of $75,000. She has demanded a jury trial.
The allegations have not been tested in court. Westinghouse has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled on the claims.
