Opinion ID: 28771
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hough and Earles

Text: With regard to Hough and Earles, Unocal’s position is that each of these plaintiffs chose the termination package after they were approached by Van Horn about whether they were interested in reassignment and expressed to Van Horn that they were not interested. The testimony concerning the conversations with Van Horn conflicted. Both Hough and Earles testified that, in their respective conversations with Van Horn, Van Horn was vague as to what the new positions would entail and what they would pay. According to these plaintiffs’ testimony, the only thing Van Horn was certain about was that the new jobs would likely pay less than their old jobs. Hough did indicate that Van Horn definitely said that he would have a job. Earles testified that Van Horn told him that there was only a possibility that he would have a job. Van Horn demanded to know whether Earles was interested before he hung up the telephone. Hough testified that Van Horn demanded an answer within a few hours, even though Van Horn could not tell Hough what or where the job would be. The jury could reasonably have chosen to believe the plaintiffs’ version of the Van Horn conversations and could infer that any “job offers” were so indefinite that they were not bona fide and did not present Hough or Earles with a real choice between accepting termination or continued employment. Unocal does not dispute that, at least, new jobs for these plaintiffs 38 would have involved salary compression. An act affecting compensation is itself a type of adverse employment action that is actionable in a discrimination case. See Mattern v. Eastman Kodak Co., 104 F.3d 702, 707 (5th Cir. 1997). The testimony that Van Horn pressured these plaintiffs to make quick decisions about these questionable uncertain job “offers” was bolstered by Earles’s testimony that Van Deventer had admitted that Unocal had such a practice of pressuring older employees into early retirement. Cf. Guthrie v. J.C. Penney Co., 803 F.3d 202, 208 (5th Cir. 1986) (jury could infer that repeated inquiries about plaintiff’s retirement plans were intentional harassment). The jury could rationally infer that Hough and Earles suffered adverse employment actions because evidence was presented that these plaintiffs were not extended bona fide offers but were offered only a “choice” between uncertain continued employment, in unspecified jobs at unspecified but lower pay, and accepting termination benefits. We affirm the district court’s holding in favor of Hough and Earles on their ADEA claims.