A federal magistrate has ordered that a former Madison-Cortland ARC employee’s wage discrimination lawsuit against a nonprofit agency that serves individuals with disabilities will go to trial. Cheryl S. Gifford of Herkimer, who served as the agency’s director of human resources from September 1999 to March 2009, filed the lawsuit in November in U.S. District Court. She alleges she...
A federal magistrate has ordered that a former Madison-Cortland ARC employee’s wage discrimination lawsuit against a nonprofit agency that serves individuals with disabilities will go to trial.
Cheryl S. Gifford of Herkimer, who served as the agency’s director of human resources from September 1999 to March 2009, filed the lawsuit in November in U.S. District Court.
She alleges she was paid nearly 30 percent less than her male counterparts for similar job performance. She seeks $1.3 million in loss wages and punitive damages.
On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge George Lowe scheduled the matter for trial in early 2011.
The lawsuit names the nonprofit’s executive director, Ray Lewandowski, as an “aidor and abettor” and includes a detailed account of Gifford’s decade of employment at the agency, which is headquartered on Lenox Avenue in Oneida.
ARC officials declined comment through their attorney, citing an agency policy not to discuss employment matters or pending litigation.
Gifford charges that Lewandowski was responsible for setting the salaries of directors and executive employees, and did so without following “an organized and structured compensation system based on either seniority, merit, quantity or quality of work or any other legitimate factor other than gender.”
The lawsuit goes on to allege that Gifford was paid 24 to 28 percent less than the agency’s controller and director of enterprise, who are both male, from 2003 to 2009.
Court records also include Gifford’s recollection of a discussion of a request for a salary increase in 2007, where Lewandowski said, “since you are married now, you don’t need an increase.”
The lawsuit goes on to name other female employees whose wages were similarly out of line with their male counterparts, including the female chief fiscal officer, who was paid 35 percent less than the male controller in 2006 and 2007. The female employee’s job duties increased in 2007 without a similar increase in annual salary, while the male employee received a 6.5 percent increase in salary that year without any modifications to his job description.
The lawsuit includes other examples of gender disparity, from higher starting salaries of male employees to increases to wages of returning male employees.
Gifford’s employment with the ARC was terminated in March 2009, the lawsuit says.
Gifford filed a complaints with the New York State Division of Human Rights and the United States Equal Opportunity Commission in fall 2009.
Officials from both agencies issued determinations that allowed Gifford to go forward with legal proceedings.
Contact Alaina Potrikus at apotrikus@syracuse.com or 470-3252.