[A] settlement appears near in a wage discrimination lawsuit filed by a former deputy state’s attorney in Rutland County, though any terms, including how much money, if any, she will receive, remain unknown.
A mediator filed a report Tuesday in federal court in Vermont stating that a “full settlement” has been reached in the case, but an attorney for the state, who is representing the entities being sued, said that’s not quite right, at least not yet.
Jane O’Neill alleged in her lawsuit that when she worked in the Rutland office from 2009 to 2014 she was paid 26 percent less than a male colleague in the same job and denied overtime pay. O’Neill could not be reached for comment, and neither could her attorney, Lisa Shelkrot.
Assistant Attorney General Kate Gallagher, representing the defendants in the case — the Rutland County state’s attorney’s office and the state Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs — said Thursday that she couldn’t talk about any possible settlement because nothing was “final”.
She added of the discussions involving the parties, “It’s confidential and I can’t discuss it.”
Gallagher declined further comment.
According to filings, a mediation session was recently held in the case, which has been pending in federal court in Vermont for nearly two years. O’Neill has sued for back wages and damages.
In his report submitted to the court and dated Tuesday, mediator Michael Marks of Middlebury wrote that the session ran several hours. Several attorneys representing the various entities are listed as having taken part in the state session.
Under a section of the mediator’s reported titled, “Results of session,” an “X” was placed marking a box on the form labeled “Full settlement.”
According to the lawsuit, O’Neill said that she made repeated inquiries about her pay, which her superiors rebuffed.
And, as she continued to make those inquiries, the work environment became increasingly hostile, ultimately forcing her to resign, the lawsuit stated.
Marc Brierre, the Rutland County state’s attorney at the time, refused to discuss the matter with O’Neill and “embarked on a course of retaliatory conduct to demean and marginalize” her, according to the lawsuit.
When O’Neill raised the issue with Bram Kranichfeld, then executive director of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, she received a similarly tepid response and was referred back to Brierre, the suit alleged.
The lawsuit alleges that they “purposely and intentionally paid less money to Ms. O’Neill than they did to John Doe, a male, based solely on the fact that Ms. O’Neill was a woman, who performed equal work that required skill, effort and responsibility, and was performed under substantially similar working conditions as John Doe, a male.”
The state moved earlier in the case to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that as “arms to the state,” the Rutland County state’s attorney office and Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs were entitled to immunity under the 11th Amendment, which protects state agencies from lawsuits.
Judge Christina Reiss agreed to dismiss some of the claims, but also ruled that O’Neill’s allegations under the federal Equal Pay Act and her civil conspiracy claim would remain pending in federal court.
Though the judge said the defense had made a compelling argument to dismiss the civil conspiracy claim on the grounds that it is not authorized under the Equal Pay Act, she did not grant the motion to dismiss.
“At this nascent stage of the proceedings,” Reiss wrote, “the court declines to dismiss plaintiff’s civil conspiracy claim.”
In an answer to the lawsuit, the state raised several “affirmative defenses,” including that the pay difference was “due in part to a system which measures earnings by quantity and quality of production,” and that O’Neill was “a salaried professional and exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
Kranichfeld is now an assistant attorney general. Brierre went on to lose re-election to the post of Rutland County state’s attorney in 2014.
John Campbell, the current executive director of the Department of State’s Attorneys, and Sheriffs, and Rose Kennedy, who is now the state’s attorney in Rutland County, both referred comment Thursday on the matter to the Vermont attorney general’s office.
Neither Campbell or Kennedy were in their current positions at the time of the allegations raised in the lawsuit.
