A longtime Newsday employee is suing the Island's largest newspaper for age discrimination and harassment.

Nancy Ruhling claims Newsday, a Tribune Co. publication, deliberately forced her to quit after she declined to accept a buyout in 2002. Ruhling's attorney, Louis Stober, said the Melville paper immediately cut her pay and changed her work duties.

"She saw constant harassment on a daily basis," Stober said.

The company told Ruhling that she would not be transferred from her copy editor position if she didn't take the buyout, she said. Next thing she knew, she claims, her duties were restricted to scanning comics for offensive material and proofing the movie and television listings.

"I was basically reading lists," she said.

Ruhling resigned in 2004, two years after refusing the retirement buyout. The lawsuit is scheduled for trial Sept. 10.