Opinion ID: 203443
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: FedEx Proceeds to Terminate Soto

Text: Soon after Soto arrived home, he and Rosario called Iris Romero. Iris reported that she had received the package without incident. Soto and Rosario were relieved, concluding that there must have been a misunderstanding or a mistake. Soto immediately called Security Specialist Pérez to tell him that Iris had received the package. According to Soto's testimony, Pérez told him that the package was at the Federal Express station. That there was a test made by Becton and Dickinson [5] and that there was a police report. Because he perceived that Pérez did not believe him, Soto then called Medina, the FedEx station manager, to explain the situation. He gave Medina the telephone number for Iris and asked him to call her, but Medina did not call. Medina repeated what Pérez had said: that a lab test had been conducted by Becton and Dickinson and that there was a police report. He told Soto that the police had the package. Soto called in to FedEx every morning, as he had been instructed to do in his suspension letter. Each morning, he asked to speak to Medina and was instead transferred to Operations Manager Alberto Calero, Soto's immediate supervisor. Each morning, Calero responded that they were dealing with the case. On June 11, Calero prepared and filed a report stating: Investigation by Specialist Pérez revealed that on 5-30-02, Soto shipped [airwaybill number] for a friend of his wife, in violation of FedEx policy 7-35 [the employee reduced rate policy] as admitted by him during a taped recorded interview. Further investigation by the Orange County Sheriff Dept., Orlando, FL revealed that the package contained an undetermined amount of liquid cocaine. Soto was suspended and consequently terminated for the above violation. On June 13, Soto was told to come into the station at three in the afternoon. Soto was brought into a conference room where Calero gave him a termination letter. Soto testified: Calero signs my letter of dismissal, of termination and he hadn't done any investigation so I asked him, Calero, why did you do this? You didn't do any investigation. Why are you doing this? What did you do with the information I gave Rolando Medina? Calero, why did you do this because he had told me that he hadn't done any investigation and if he didn't do any investigation, how can he sign the paper saying that an investigation had been done? Calero responded that Soto was responsible for what [his] family did. Soto asked to speak to Pérez. Medina responded that he was not available. Soto said, [W]ell, he is not here because he [knows] that what he had accused me of was a lie because the package had been delivered and nothing had happened. There hadn't been any arrests. I had not been interrogated by any police officer. Soto's termination letter, dated June 13, 2002, stated: A thorough investigation of an alleged violation of the Employee reduced-rate Shipping Policy 7-35 has determined that you allowed your employee reduced rate privileges to be utilized to ship a package for an ineligible person. In addition, the shipment allowed an illegal substance to be transported through the system in further violation of FedEx policies. Soto's termination letter informed him that he could invoke review procedures under the FedEx Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure/EEO Complaint Process (GFTP) by submitting a request for review. He did so in a written statement on June 17, asking the company to further investigate the allegation that the package contained drugs.