Opinion ID: 1460562
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Olin Clay

Text: With respect to Clay, the issues before us are whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment to UPS on Clay's disparate-treatment claim, and whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment to UPS on Clay's retaliation claim.
At UPS, feeder drivers are typically long-distance drivers traveling to and from the major hubs at UPS to deliver and pick-up packages. Depending on seniority, feeder drivers typically work either on an on-call basis or have permanent runs. Feeder drivers first serve a probationary period consisting of working thirty-days in a ninety-day period, whereupon they become a full employee. Clay worked for UPS at the Middleburg Heights hub facility from November 1999 until September 2001 as an on-call, feeder-truck driver. Clay's seniority date was November 15, 1999. UPS determined that Clay completed his probationary period around June 2000. When UPS hired Clay, UPS told him that he would be immediately qualified at driving triples, which are large, triple-trailer, semi-trucks used for long hauls. J.A. at 564 (Clay Aff. at ¶¶ 11-12). Triples drivers make approximately one-dollar more per hour than the regular pay for feeder driving. The training process consisted of a triples-qualified supervisor riding with a feeder driver. In order to be eligible for triples training, one requirement was that the driver sign a bid sheet for a triples run. On June 5, 2000, Clay had a confrontation with Joe Rudnicki, Feeder Driver Manager, who yelled at Clay for idling his truck. Rudnicki told Clay he was going to wage war on Clay. J.A. at 566 (Clay Aff. at ¶ 34). Clay alleges that after his hiring, UPS proceeded to provide triples training to the new drivers according to policy, but when Clay was next in line to receive training, without explanation, Rudnicki stopped providing the training. As a result, Clay continued to drive doubles for less money. In August 2000, Clay filed a grievance with the union claiming he was unfairly denied triples training. Rudnicki confronted Clay about his grievance, stating, among other things, that failure to train Clay had been a mistake. Shortly, thereafter, and by the time a grievance hearing was held, Clay was provided with triples training. On December 18, 2000, Clay filed discrimination charges with the EEOC/OCRC. From January 2001 through March 2001, Clay was not called in to work. Feeder drivers were typically laid off in the early part of the year at UPS, and Clay received unemployment compensation during this period. In April 2001, Clay was advised by a psychiatrist (he had begun seeking counseling for work-related stress and depression) to stay off work. UPS listed Clay as out of service in the feeder logs and no one from UPS called him from April 2001 through June 2001. J.A. at 575 (Clay Aff. at ¶¶ 101-02). On June 18 or 19, 2001, Clay received his right-to-sue letter from the EEOC. Around this same time, Clay informed union representative Reagan O'Connell that he wanted to be placed in service again. O'Connell advised Clay to get a work release from Clay's doctor and to send it to Rudnicki. Clay faxed a form to Rudnicki around July 27, 2001, indicating that he was cleared to return to work as of August 1, 2001. In a letter dated July 27, 2001, UPS notified Clay that he lacked current documentation to justify his absence since the 2nd of January. J.A. at 576, 713 (Clay Aff. at ¶ 110; 7/27 Letter). UPS imposed a deadline of August 1, 2001, to submit proper documentation to justify his absence. J.A. at 713 (7/27 Letter). The letter was postmarked July 30, 2001, and Clay did not receive the letter until the August 1st deadline. At this point, Clay considered himself terminated. Clay called the union and spoke with Union Business Representative Jack Kabeller, informing him of his termination and his desire to file a grievance. Kabeller told Clay to contact Tom Piscitello (Piscitello), the Division Manager for Middleburg Heights. When they spoke, Piscitello told Clay that his doctor's excuse was no good and that Clay had to submit additional medical details. J.A. at 577 (Clay Aff. at ¶¶ 116-17). On August 7, 2001, Clay contacted his doctors and requested that they fax his diagnosis directly to Piscitello. His doctors complied with Clay's request that same day. On August 22 or 23, 2001, Clay received a certified letter from Rudnicki formally stating that Clay had been terminated for unauthorized leave of absence. J.A. at 578 (Clay Aff. at ¶ 119). The union filed a grievance on Clay's behalf. A local-level grievance hearing took place on September 19, 2001. At the hearing, Piscitello told Clay that he had to be cleared by a UPS-designated doctor before UPS would consider allowing him to return to work at UPS. Clay saw the company-approved doctor on September 21, 2001. The doctor told him that he would fax the information to UPS and that Clay could leave. The doctor never told Clay that he was cleared for work. Clay went home after the doctor's appointment. He turned off his cell phone and plugged it into a wall socket to recharge the battery. On Wednesday, September 26, 2001, Clay turned on his cell phone and retrieved several messages from UPS dispatch. On October 1 or 2, 2001, Clay received a certified letter, dated September 26, 2001 and post-marked September 29, 2001, informing him that he had been fired and/or considered to have voluntar[il]y quit for missing three consecutive days pursuant to the CBA. J.A. at 580 (Clay Aff. at ¶¶ 134-35). However, Rudnicki has stated that Clay was not recorded as released to work until the afternoon of September 24, 2001. The first full day on which UPS considered Clay available to work was, therefore, September 25. Clay filed suit against UPS, alleging hostile work environment, disparate treatment, and retaliation under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and OHIO REV.CODE §§ 4112.02(A), 4112.99. UPS filed a motion for summary judgment. The district court granted UPS's motion with respect to all of Clay's claims. Clay then filed a motion to reconsider, which the district court denied. On appeal, Clay has abandoned his hostile-work-environment claim.

The district court analyzed three different allegations of disparate treatment, but on appeal Clay focuses only on UPS's failure to provide him with triples training. The district court found that Clay could not establish that he suffered an adverse employment action and that Clay could not establish that a person outside of the protected class was treated more favorably than he was. We disagree with the district court on both grounds, and conclude that Clay has set forth a prima facie case of discrimination.
The district court, without citing any cases, stated that Clay failed to show that he suffered an adverse employment action, because eventually he received the triples training. Driving triples paid one dollar more per hour than the feeder-driving that Clay was assigned as a result of his inability to perform triples runs. Clay was never offered any compensation to make up for lost wages during the time that he was not trained to drive triples. We hold that a deprivation of increased compensation as the result of a failure to train constitutes an adverse employment action. See Jordan, 464 F.3d at 596 ([D]enial of money would more than amply qualify as a materially adverse action as to any reasonable employee for Title VII purposes.). Because Clay has alleged that he was deprived of increased compensation as the result of a failure to train him on triples, the district court erred in determining that Clay did not suffer an adverse employment action. [6]
The district court concluded that Clay had not established the fourth prong of his prima facie case because he did not raise a genuine issue of material fact that similarly situated employees were treated more favorably than was Clay. On appeal we are presented with three different theories as to why Clay has not met this part of his prima facie case. First, the district found that Clay failed to show that he was treated less favorably than similarly situated, non-protected employees because once UPS resumed training, Clay was provided with triples training before two white drivers with more seniority. Clay alleges that UPS deprived him of training to which he was entitled on the basis of his race. The fact that UPS eventually did train Clay, and may have trained him before two other white people who should have been trained before Clay, does not ameliorate the earlier deprivation. UPS provided triples training to other white drivers, and Clay alleges that once it was his turn to train, UPS suspended training. We reject the district court's theory that because Clay was eventually treated better than two white employees, he could not have been treated worse than other white employees in the past. Second, UPS argues that Clay is not similarly situated to white drivers who were trained on triples because only qualified drivers who successfully bid on a permanent run during the annual bidding process are entitled to be trained for triples, and because Clay lacked the seniority to bid successfully a permanent run, he was not entitled to train on triples. Clay disputes that there was a permanent-run requirement, supporting his contention with the fact that when he, himself, was finally trained, he had no permanent run, but was only an on-call feeder driver. Clay also points to the affidavit of Thomas Klepsky who also asserted that there was no such requirement. Third, the district court found that Clay's training grievance was made on behalf of himself `and others.' J.A. at 971 (Op. at 36). According to the district court, all of the others referenced in Clay's grievance were white, thus suggest[ing] that the failure to train did not uniquely disadvantage Clay as a black employee. J.A. at 971-72 (Op. at 36-37). The fourth prong of the prima facie case is that a person outside the protected class was treated more favorably than the plaintiff. Braithwaite, 258 F.3d at 493. Clay argues, and we agree that, the relevant comparators in this case are the other employees who actually signed the bid sheets. Given that the bid sheets established who was eligible to train for triples, Clay is correct in asserting that the relevant comparators would be those signing the bid sheets. Clay asserts that once his name was next on the list to receive the triples training, UPS stopped providing the training. The fact that there were white drivers below his name who also did not receive training should not prove fatal to his claim. We disagree with the district court's reasoning and hold that the fact that lesser-seniority employees from a non-protected class may be harmed in the wake of discriminatory animus does not necessarily defeat a plaintiff's prima facie case. Having established that the relevant comparators in this case are the other drivers who signed the bid sheets, Clay asserts that because UPS failed to produce the bid sheets, the district court should have drawn an adverse inference against UPS. We agree. Clay should not be punished for his inability to point to the relevant comparators in this case; rather, UPS's failure to turn over the bid sheets in this case creates an adverse inference in Clay's favor. [T]he general rule is that [w]here relevant information . . . is in the possession of one party and not provided, then an adverse inference may be drawn that such information would be harmful to the party who fails to provide it. McMahan & Co. v. Po Folks, Inc., 206 F.3d 627, 632-33 (6th Cir.2000) (second and third alteration in original) (internal quotation omitted). Because the district court based its conclusion on an analysis of non-relevant comparators, we conclude that the district court was incorrect in rejecting Clay's prima facie case. There is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Clay was qualified to train for triples at the time that he was denied training. Accordingly, Clay has met his burden for setting forth a prima facie case of discrimination, and the burden shifts to UPS to articulate a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for suspending triples training.
Supporting its articulated reason with Rudnicki's affidavit, UPS asserts that the reason that it suspended triples training was because it had no supervisors available to provide triples training during the period between February and August 2000. According to UPS, during that period, the six supervisors qualified to train triples drivers were busy training forty new feeder drivers. UPS meets its burden of articulation, and the burden shifts back to Clay to show pretext.
In support of his argument that UPS's asserted reason is pretextual, Clay raises genuine issues of material fact as to whether training was suspended between February 2000 and August 2000 in order to train forty, newly hired, feeder drivers. There are two points raised by Clay which rebut UPS's articulated reason. First, according to Clay, the record demonstrates that only eight drivers were hired between July and September 2000, and no new drivers were hired between February and June 2000. These lists are ambiguous, in that they could represent drivers who were both hired and trained, not merely hired. However, these lists do raise a legitimate question as to whether there is any factual basis to UPS's stated reason for suspending triples training on the basis of hiring forty new feeder drivers. The meaning of these lists is a fact question for the jury to determine. Second, Clay asserts that UPS never raised the issue of needing to train new feeder drivers until it filed its reply brief to the district court in support of its motion for summary judgment. It was not until this point that UPS added a second declaration by Rudnicki asserting that UPS suspended training in order to train the forty new feeder drivers. Clay asserts that up until this time, UPS's stated reason for not training Clay was that it was a mistake. J.A. at 571-73 (Clay Aff. at ¶¶ 73-85). Nowhere in UPS's opening brief to the district court in support of its motion for summary judgment does UPS assert that it stopped triples training in order to train newly hired drivers; in fact, it does not assert any reason whatsoever for its decision to suspend triples training. This casts further doubt on the legitimacy of UPS's stated reason. See Thurman v. Yellow Freight Sys., Inc., 90 F.3d 1160, 1167 (6th Cir.1996) (An employer's changing rationale for making an adverse employment decision can be evidence of pretext.). Because Clay has set forth evidence upon which a reasonable jury could find pretext, we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment on Clay's disparate-treatment claim.
The McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting approach also applies to retaliation claims. Dixon v. Gonzales, 481 F.3d 324, 333 (6th Cir.2007). In this case, the parties all use the following construct for establishing whether or not Clay made a prima facie case of retaliation: (1) the employee has engaged in Title VII-protected activity; (2) the employer had knowledge of this fact; (3) the employee suffered an adverse employment action; and (4) there is a causal connection between the protected activity and the adverse employment action. Singfield v. Akron Metro. Housing Auth., 389 F.3d 555, 563 (6th Cir.2004). Clay argues that his termination was in retaliation for his filing discrimination charges with the OCRC/EEOC. The district court found that Clay had made a prima facie case for retaliation, but that he failed to establish that the legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason articulated by UPS (that Clay violated the three day, no-call, no-show policy) was pretextual. Clay's most compelling argument that UPS's reason was pretextual is that he missed only two consecutive days of work, not three, because the first full day on which he was available for work was September 25 and his termination letter was dated September 26. This evidence certainly tends to show pretext in that UPS's proffered reason does not appear to be anchored in the facts. However, asserting the honest-belief rule, the district court determined that Clay could not show pretext based on UPS terminating Clay after two, rather than three, consecutive days of absence. In determining whether an employer's stated reason was pretextual, we use a version of the honest-belief rule different from that of the Seventh Circuit: Under the honest belief rule developed by the Seventh Circuit, so long as the employer honestly believed in the proffered reason, an employee cannot prove pretext even if the employer's reason in the end is shown to be mistaken, foolish, trivial, or baseless. Smith v. Chrysler Corp., 155 F.3d 799, 806 (6th Cir.1998) (citing, inter alia, Kariotis v. Navistar Int'l Trans. Corp., 131 F.3d 672, 676 (7th Cir.1997)). We have rejected the Seventh Circuit's bare honest-belief' doctrine and instead have adopted a modified honest-belief approach. Id. (holding that [t]o the extent the Seventh Circuit's application of the `honest belief' rule credits an employer's belief without requiring that it be reasonably based on particularized facts rather than on ignorance and mythology, we reject its approach). Under this approach, for an employer to avoid a finding that its claimed nondiscriminatory reason was pretextual, the employer must be able to establish its reasonable reliance on the particularized facts that were before it at the time the decision was made.  Id. at 806-07 (defining standard in the context of an Americans with Disabilities Act claim); see also Balmer v. HCA, Inc., 423 F.3d 606, 614 (6th Cir.2005) (applying Smith rule in Title VII retaliation case). Even when the employer makes such a showing, the protection afforded by the rule is not automatic. . . . [O]nce the employer is able to point to the particularized facts that motivated its decision, the employee has the opportunity to produce `proof to the contrary.' Smith, 155 F.3d at 807 (quoting Pesterfield v. TVA, 941 F.2d 437, 443 (6th Cir.1991)). Wright, 455 F.3d at 707-08 (emphasis supplied). Thus, the burden is on the employer to point to specific facts that it had at the time the decision was made which would justify its belief in the proffered reason. In its initial opinion denying Clay summary judgment, the district court cited only one case, which was decided by the Seventh Circuit, in support of its conclusion that UPS was entitled to the benefit of the honest-belief rule. J.A. at 980 (Op. at 45 n. 18) (citing Billups v. Methodist Hosp., 922 F.2d 1300, 1304 (7th Cir.1991)). The district court's analysis demonstrates that it was not applying our version of the honest-belief rule. The district court asserted [t]hat UPS may have been mistaken, however, does not raise an issue of fact as to pretext, so long as its belief was honestly held. Id. In arriving at this conclusion, the district court conducted no analysis on whether UPS's mistake was `reasonably based on particularized facts.' [7] Wright, 455 F.3d at 708 (quoting Smith, 155 F.3d at 806). In its subsequent order denying Clay's motion for reconsideration, the district court placed the burden on Clay to show that [UPS] did not honestly believe [Clay] was available for work. J.A. at 1058 (Recons. Order at 7). But as Wright makes clear, the burden is on the employer to establish its reasonable reliance on the particularized facts that were before it at the time the decision was made. Wright, 455 F.3d at 708. UPS has not done so in this case, and thus, does not qualify for protection under the honest-belief rule. The dissent accuses us of improperly shifting the burden of proof to UPS, Dissent at p. 720, because we cite circuit precedent requiring that the defendant's honest belief be reasonably based on particularized facts rather than on ignorance and mythology. Wright, 455 F.3d at 708. Because the dissent appears confused about the honest-belief rule, we pause here to clarify. Once the defendant meets its burden of production to articulate a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason supported by admissible evidence, the burden of production shifts to the plaintiff to show that the reason given was pretextual. Johnson, 319 F.3d at 866. One way in which a plaintiff may demonstrate pretext is by showing that the reason given by the employer is ultimately found to be mistaken, foolish, trivial, or baseless. Smith v. Chrysler Corp., 155 F.3d 799, 806 (6th Cir.1998). The burden of production is on the plaintiff to demonstrate that the reason given by the employer is mistaken, foolish, trivial, or baseless. Id. If the plaintiff meets this burden and the defendant is silent in the face of the plaintiff's evidence, then the case proceeds to trial to weigh the evidence. The honest-belief rule is, in effect, one last opportunity for the defendant to prevail on summary judgment. The defendant may rebut the plaintiff's evidence of pretext, by demonstrating that the defendant's actions, while perhaps mistaken, foolish, trivial, or baseless, were not taken with discriminatory intent. We give the defendant an opportunity to show that its intent was pure, because the focus of a discrimination suit is on the intent of the employer. If the employer honestly, albeit mistakenly, believes in the non-discriminatory reason it relied upon in making its employment decision, then the employer arguably lacks the necessary discriminatory intent. Id. But we do not apply the honest-belief rule if the plaintiff has not even demonstrated that the defendant's proffered reason appears mistaken, foolish, trivial, or baseless. Id. Thus, we do not improperly shift burdens of production or persuasion by requiring UPS to demonstrate that its honest belief was `reasonably based on particularized facts.' Wright, 455 F.3d at 708. The honest-belief rule is inapplicable in this case, and the district court erred in relying on it here. Because Clay has put forth evidence from which a jury could infer pretext, we hold that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to UPS on Clay's retaliation claim.