A former deputy state’s attorney in Rutland County has reached a $150,000 settlement with the state in her wage discrimination lawsuit.
“This is a victory for the hardworking people of Vermont especially women providing for themselves and their families,” Jane O’Neill said Friday in a statement issued through her lawyer, Lisa Shelkrot.
“This positive outcome sends a strong message to the State of Vermont and all other employers that there is a price to pay if they choose to ignore state and federal laws that address pay equality, civility and fairness in the workplace,” O’Neill added.
Both Shelkrot, of the Burlington-based law firm Langrock Sperry & Wool, and O’Neill declined further comment.
A “stipulation of dismissal” was filed Friday in federal court in Vermont in the lawsuit brought more than two years ago by O’Neill. That one-paragraph filing did not state any dollar amount of the settlement.
However, Assistant Attorney General Kate Gallagher, who represented the state in the case, confirmed Friday afternoon that the state will pay O’Neill $150,000 to settle the lawsuit.
As part of the settlement, there are no admissions of wrongdoing or liability on the state’s behalf, Gallagher added.
The $150,000 figure was not reached based on any “precise” calculation, but as part of a compromise reached through negotiations, Gallagher said.
“We were happy we were able to resolve it. We think it’s the best thing for the Rutland County state’s attorney,” she said. “We wish Ms. O’Neill well.”
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.
She sued for back wages and damages.
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office represented the two defendants in the case: the Rutland County state’s attorney’s office and the state Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs.
O’Neill, according to the lawsuit, said that she made repeated inquiries about her pay, which her superiors rebuffed. As she continued to make those inquiries, the work environment became increasingly hostile, the lawsuit stated, ultimately forcing her to resign.
Marc Brierre, the Rutland County state’s attorney at the time, refused to discuss the matter with O’Neill, the lawsuit stated. Instead, according to the filing, he “embarked on a course of retaliatory conduct to demean and marginalize” her.
The lawsuit added that 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 lawsuit alleged 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.”
Earlier in the case, the state moved to have the lawsuit thrown out. The Attorney General’s Office argued 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 U.S. Constitution’s 11th Amendment, which protects state agencies from lawsuits.
Federal Judge Christina Reiss agreed to dismiss some parts of the lawsuit, 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.
The state, in its answer to the lawsuit, raised several “affirmative defenses.” Those defenses included that pay differential 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.”
Brierre went on to lose re-election to the post of Rutland County state’s attorney in 2014 to Rose Kennedy, who currently holds that post.
Neither Brierre nor Kranichfeld, who is now an assistant attorney general, could be reached for comment.
John Campbell, executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, wasn’t in his current position at the time of the allegations. On Friday, he referred comment on the lawsuit to the Attorney General’s Office.
Kennedy, who was not in her current position at the time of the allegations raised in the lawsuit, said that the issues that drove O’Neill to file a lawsuit drove her to run for office.
“Both of us witnessed things in the former State’s Attorney’s office that made us take action. I ran for election to create change. Ms. O’Neil sought legal recourse,” Kennedy said. “I am proud of the way Ms. O’Neil raised awareness of equal pay and discrimination. Her courage is an important part of enforcing rights of all women.”
