A lawsuit filed in federal court the day after Christmas alleges a long-time employee in the Connecticut Department of Labor (DOL) was passed over for numerous promotions because he is Black, Nigerian and nearing 70 years old.
Jide Ebo, who has worked for the DOL since 1989 and is a field supervisor of wage regulation, alleges he has been passed over for seven promotions despite being “fully qualified for promotions to the positions,” because of his “race, color and/or national origin.”
Among the allegations are that Ebo was passed over for promotion to director of the Wage and Workplace Standards division of DOL, which investigates complaints and enforces state laws regulating pay and benefits, because former DOL Commissioner Scott Jackson, who is Black, couldn’t understand his Nigerian accent, hiring former Hamden Police Chief Thomas Wydra to head the division instead. Jackson had previously been mayor of Hamden.
The lawsuit claims Wydra, who is white, was the first person to be given the position of director who wasn’t hired from within the agency “to circumvent the promotion of the plaintiff, who, by department custom, was next in line to be promoted to division director.”
Ebo claims that in 2022 Wydra and DOL intentionally prevented Ebo from being promoted to assistant director by not emailing the job posting to all DOL employees, sending the posting instead to only a younger, Hispanic candidate, whom he claims Wydra favored.
According to the lawsuit, Wydra said the posting was not emailed to everyone due to a mistake in Human Resources.
Ebo then applied for the position but alleges Wydra “intentionally took actions to harm the plaintiff’s promotion opportunity,” by casting doubt on Ebo’s job performance, letter of recommendation and his interest in the position. Ebo alleges that Wydra’s resistance to promoting him was due to his age – nearly 70 – and that his preferred candidate was younger, and Wydra wanted to give her the opportunity.
Ebo claims he then withdrew his application following a “campaign of disinformation” and resistance by Wydra that caused “emotional trauma” by diminishing his “professional reputation and years of excellent job performance.”
“Despite the plaintiff’s qualifications, the defendant made it impossible for the plaintiff to compete in the promotion process for Assistant Director in the Wage and Workplace Standards Division of the Department of Labor as it has been corrupted by Wydra,” in order to secure the position for his favored candidate the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit claims one count of civil rights violation and a second count of retaliation, claiming Ebo was essentially shut out from internal matters, had his job performance ratings downgraded and excluded from other job opportunities after he filed a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Wydra replaced former Wage and Workplace Standards Division Director Resa Spaziani who stepped down from the role after only a year following intense internal strife, including multiple complaints and allegations made against her and between other employees in the division in 2017 resulting in numerous internal investigations.
Part of her resignation letter implied part of the reason for such resistance to her directorship was because she was a woman, writing she doubted that any male director has been subjected to such scrutiny and that she felt the investigation “was handled inappropriately.”
A 2019 audit by state auditors noted a “hostile work environment” within the division – something DOL disputed, responding that while the “personnel matters were substantiated within a unit of the agency” they had addressed those issues and disagreed with the hostile work environment categorization.
Ebo was released from the EEOC in this matter to pursue his lawsuit. He is asking the court to declare DOL’s conduct to be a civil rights violation, have him appointed as assistant director of the Wage and Workplace Standards Division and be awarded back pay and benefits, compensatory damages and attorney costs and fees.
CT DOL said they cannot comment directly on pending litigation but “deny the claims in the complaint and will vigorously defend against the allegations.”
**This article was updated to include an updated comment from DOL**
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Marc I am actually working with the state auditors about discrimination by Thomas Wydra and other staff in the CT DOL Wage and Standards division. I have documented and recorded evidence of them falsifying testimony in retaliation of me filing a discrimination complaint. They aren’t just discriminating against employees they are discriminating against the workers they are supposed to be helping.
I am a State employee at DOL. I can truly relate to Jide Ebo story. I too have been an is still in this same situation at DOL. So sad we have to go through this.
DD