The county and a former employee are finalizing a settlement of a federal age discrimination suit.

In a settlement notice filed Friday, Holly Radwanski of Butler and the county said they are finalizing a settlement of the suit she filed in March 2023 and expect to file documents dismissing the suit within 30 days.

Radwanski argues in the suit she was “compelled to resign” and “constructively discharged” in May 2022 after her pay was cut in half as a result of a job transfer.

She was hired in May 2014 as a second deputy in the prothonotary’s office and then transferred to the district attorney’s office as a clerk typist II in June 2017 without a loss or reduction in her pay, according to the suit.

In January 2020, she said she transferred back to the prothonotary’s office with the support and recommendation of newly elected Prothonotary Kelly Ferrari.

Around June 2021, Ferrari began to dramatically increase Radwanski’s workload until it became impossible to complete all of her assignments and began criticizing her nearly every day for not finishing the work while substantially younger employees saw no workload increase, according to the suit.

Radwanski’s suit doesn’t specify her age, but says she was born in 1979.

The result was a hostile work environment that caused Radwanski to suffer stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression, according to the suit.

To get away from that environment, she said she transferred back to the district attorney’s office as a legal assistant in January 2022. Radwanski said her duties at the prothonotary’s office were divided among three substantially younger employees after she left.

Radwanski said she didn’t know her pay was reduced by about $25,000 annually until after that transfer had been completed. District Attorney Richard Goldinger contacted the human resources department about the pay cut in February 2022, and the salary board found she should be treated as a newly hired employee who had been hired in or after 2019 and refused to change her pay, according to the suit. She noted she had been continuously employed with no break in service since May 27, 2014.

She argued she was “compelled to resign” when her pay was reduced from $54,155 a year to $16.91 an hour, leaving her unable to meet her expenses, and was “constructively discharged” as a result of the pay cut and transferring jobs to remove herself from a hostile work environment, according to the suit.

Radwanski was seeking unspecified amount of back pay, the pay she would have received if she worked until she reached retirement age in 2046 and compensation for lost benefits, humiliation, loss of self-esteem, costs and attorney fees.

Ferrari declined to comment other than to say: “The county does not comment on ongoing litigation.” The county commissioners could not be reached for comment Monday.

Radwanski’s attorney Neal Sanders said Radwanski no longer works for the county.

“It was unfortunate that litigation had to be taken and filed,” he said.