Claim will test Connecticut’s fair-pay law

Gerald Metals, headquartered at 680 Washington Boulevard in Stamford, is being suied in a case involving an employee citing Connecticut’s new “pay secrecy” law preserving free speech in the workplace in discussing compensation. less Gerald Metals, headquartered at 680 Washington Boulevard in Stamford, is being suied in a case involving an employee citing Connecticut’s new “pay secrecy” law preserving free speech in the workplace in ... more Photo: Alexander Soule / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Alexander Soule / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Claim will test Connecticut’s fair-pay law 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

An employee of Stamford-based Gerald Metals has sued the company under Connecticut’s Pay Equity and Fairness Act, believed to be the first such claim filed under a new state law preserving workers’ freedom to discuss their pay and that of colleagues.

Connecticut’s pay secrecy act bars employers from forbidding or discouraging their personnel from discussing compensation with peers, with the law intended in part to help women learn whether they are being paid on an equitable level with men in comparable positions.

After Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed the legislation in 2015, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., signaled her support. DeLauro has been a longtime proponent of a federal Paycheck Fairness Act, along with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; a dozen other states have similar laws on the books.

Nearly half of workers polled in 2010 indicated they were either discouraged or forbidden from discussing pay with co-workers, as determined in a national survey at the time by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research/Rockefeller Survey of Economic Security.

Now, Norwalk resident Denise Isherwood has invoked the state’s new law in a suit against Gerald Metals, after a conversation with two managers boiled over into criticism of how the company was paying others in its employ. Gerald Metals is a commodities trading and finance affiliate of Gerald Group with its headquarters at 680 Washington Blvd. in downtown Stamford, reporting having some 200 employees and assets of $3 billion.

Isherwood, 62, has worked for Gerald Metals since 1998 and remains with the company today as she proceeds with her lawsuit. She declined an interview through her attorney Gary Phelan, a partner with the boutique labor and employment law firm Mitchell & Sheahan, which has offices in Stratford and Stamford.

In her lawsuit, Isherwood states she complained to two Gerald Metals managers of her pay being frozen two years and bonuses being cut in half, while contending the company paid employees to perform renovations on CEO Craig Dean’s vacation home in Southampton, N.Y. In response, Isherwood said, Gerald Metals threatened her with terminating her employment “in any future outbursts and/or accusations,” in her words.

Her “exercise of such rights did not substantially or materially interfere with her bona fide performance or with her working relationship with Gerald

Metals,” Isherwood stated in her lawsuit.

“She is alleging they are increasingly hiring younger employees (and) paying them market salaries, … (and) not giving older employees raises,” Phelan said. “She got a written warning ... for speaking out, among other things, about employee salaries and compensation.”

Phelan believes that Gerald Metals violated Connecticut’s new law on that last point; the question is whether the issue will be decided in state or federal court. After Isherwood filed suit in April in state Superior Court in Stamford, Gerald Metals last week petitioned to have the case transferred to the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, noting Isherwood invoked the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Prior to filing suit in state Superior Court, Isherwood had been seeking redress with the National Labor Relations Board and with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

Gerald Metals’ attorney, Rachel Kushel, told Hearst Connecticut Media the company “looks forward to presenting its case in court” and otherwise declined comment. Kushel is an attorney in the Hartford office of Robinson & Cole.

Gerald Metals has separately been sued by its former general counsel Roxanne Khazarian, who resigned in April, and has claims pending for age and gender discrimination with CHRO.

“They have each been retaliated against because they openly spoke about compensation,” Phelan said. “We think this is a very good test case.”

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-964-2236; www.twitter.com/casoulman