Opinion ID: 77051
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lilly Ledbetter

Text: 7 Lilly Ledbetter hired in to the Gadsden plaint as a Supervisor, the precursor to the Area Manager position, on February 5, 1979, at forty years of age. The record discloses very little about the first dozen years of Ledbetter's career. She worked as an Area Manager in several different business centers under several different BCMs. Twice, in 1986 and again in 1989, she was included in general layoffs, one lasting fifteen months. The record does not disclose who, prior to 1992, the other Area Managers in Ledbetter's immediate areas of the plant were, how Ledbetter fared against them in end-of-year performance rankings, or how her salary or the merit-based raises she received compared to theirs. 8 In early 1992, Ledbetter was selected to be part of the start-up team for the new RLT section of the Tire Assembly business center, which would produce large radial tires for sport utility vehicles and light trucks. From the summer of 1992 until the beginning of 1996, Ledbetter was supervised in RLT by Mike Tucker, who was at first Team Leader for the RLT section and, after 1995, BCM for the entire Tire Assembly area. Four Area Managers worked together under Tucker in RLT from 1992 until 1996: Ledbetter, Bill Miller, Jimmy Todd, and Jerry Thompson. 9 With the sole exception of performance year 1994, Tucker consistently ranked Ledbetter at or near the bottom of her co-workers in terms of performance. In 1993, he ranked her third out of the four Area Managers, and fifth out of six salaried employees, based on her 1992 performance. Tucker suggested, and she received, a 5.28% increase over her existing salary, the largest percentage increase given to any Area Manager, though the smallest in absolute dollars. Jimmy Todd, who was ranked last, received no merit increase. 10 In planning for the merit increases for 1994, Tucker ranked Ledbetter last among the four RLT Area Managers, and last among the six salaried employees. He proposed that she receive a 5% merit increase, the smallest he proposed. 11 In 1995, Tucker awarded Ledbetter a substantial increase of 7.85%, to become effective December 1, 1995, based on her performance in 1994. The record does not reflect her exact performance ranking, but the raise she received included a 4% increase styled as an individual performance award and a 3.85% increase styled as a top performance award. According to the compensation guidelines in effect at the time, top performance awards were to be given [f]or only the highest level of individual performance and contribution in an organization, and to  not more than 30% of the number of salaried associates in an organization. Dual individual performance/top performance awards of the type Ledbetter received were intended to be used to reward and recognize the uppermost level of top performer. 3 12 Ledbetter was ineligible for a merit increase in 1996 because her 1995 raise became effective December 1, 1995, and the minimum time interval between raises was then thirteen months, meaning that she would not be eligible for another merit increase until January 1, 1997. She was nevertheless ranked against the twenty-three other salaried employees in Tire Assembly, which had been unified under a single BCM, Tucker, in 1995. Tucker ranked Ledbetter twenty-third out of twenty-four salaried employees, and fifteenth out of sixteen Area Managers. Jimmy Todd was ranked twenty-fourth, and both he and the person ranked twenty-second were denied raises. 13 In March 1996, around the time that Tucker recommended raises for 1995's performance, Ledbetter was transferred to the ARF room, a section of Tire Assembly that made smaller radial tires for passenger vehicles. Jerry Jones, who replaced Tucker as Tire Assembly's BCM in the summer of 1996, told her that she had been transferred because of her sub-standard performance in RLT. 14 At the end of 1996, as Jones was completing the performance appraisals for that year, Pete Buchanan, the Human Resources Manager, instructed him not to evaluate Ledbetter's or Todd's performance because, based on their 1995 performance rankings, both were slated to be included in the plant's upcoming layoffs. Jones, in turn, informed Ledbetter that she would be laid off along with Jimmy Todd and a long list of people in departments all over the plant. 15 The next day, however, Jones told Ledbetter that she was to continue working, as a substitute for other Area Managers who were or would be out on extended medical leave. Ledbetter worked in that capacity through 1997, and received the same monthly salary she had been paid since her last merit increase, in December 1995. Thus, at the end of 1997, she was still earning $3727 per month, less than all fifteen of the other Area Managers in Tire Assembly. The lowest paid male Area Manager was making $4286, roughly 15% more than Ledbetter; the highest paid was making $5236, roughly 40% more than Ledbetter. 4 16 Throughout 1997, Ledbetter and Jones had several conversations in which he expressed concerns about her performance. At one such meeting, in August, Jones strongly recommended that she apply for a non-supervisory Technology Engineer position that was open in the Final Finish area. He reminded her that she was still slated for layoff, and he implied that she would be laid off unless she transferred to an area not affected by the reduction in force. 5 He thought the Technology Engineer position would be good for her. Ledbetter interviewed for the position the same day and was accepted, although she continued working as an Area Manager in the ARF room for the remainder 1997. 17 In October, Jones transferred to another Goodyear facility and was replaced by Kelly Owen as BCM of Tire Assembly. On January 5, 1998, Ledbetter began working as a Technology Engineer — at the same salary she received in 1997. She was replaced in the ARF room by Jerry Thompson, who in turn was replaced in RLT by Brent Payne, a former tire builder Ledbetter had once supervised. 6 18 Though Ledbetter was no longer working in Tire Assembly, Kelly Owen reviewed her performance, and that of the other salaried employees in the unit, for 1997. Owen ranked her twenty-third out of twenty-four salaried employees and fifteenth out of sixteen Area Managers. He ranked one male Area Manager, Dean Nance, below her. Nance, Ledbetter, and the two other lowest ranking Area Managers were all denied raises. Because Ledbetter was denied a raise for 1998, as she had been for 1997 and 1996, she remained at the same monthly salary ($3727) she had been paid since her December 1, 1995 raise. 19 On March 25, 1998, Ledbetter filed a questionnaire with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that she had been forced into the Technology Engineer position and was being subjected to disparate treatment in her new department on account of her sex. In July, she filed a formal charge of discrimination with the EEOC. This time she alleged, in addition to her earlier complaints, that she had received a discriminatorily low salary as an Area Manager because of her sex. 20 In August, Goodyear announced that it was going to downsize the Gadsden plant and that those who were likely be laid off would have the option of choosing early retirement. Ledbetter applied, was accepted, and retired effective November 1, 1998. 21 In February 1999, Goodyear announced that the Gadsden plant would close. The plant never completely shut down, however, but large-scale layoffs were made, and several Area Managers were either laid off or given the opportunity to transfer to other plants. At the height of the layoffs and transfers, the number of Area Managers in Tire Assembly — where Ledbetter had worked from 1992 to 1998 — fell to from a high of sixteen to a low of four.