Opinion ID: 2967284
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Disparate, Lesser Training of Ms. Conner

Text: In May 1993, SBI hired Ms. Conner and a number of men (who had also completed the community college course) for the position of craftsman (skilled) to operate the multi-spindle machines in Department 710. J.A. 1002. Men who did not have prior experience operating the Acme-Gridley machines were first temporarily placed in SBI's Department 767, where they received an additional six months of one-on-one, hands-on training, and were taught how to properly load metal bars into the machines. These men were then transferred to Department 710, where they began operating the machines. Like these men, Ms. Conner had no prior experience operating the Acme_________________________________________________________________ tor then carried the full pan of oil-covered parts to a degreaser. Full pans of parts weighed up to 100 pounds. The atmosphere around these machines was dense with the oil required to run them smoothly. Machine operators regularly were required to submerge their arms in oil; vaporized oil from the machine would fall and settle, covering the machine operators' clothes, hair, and skin, as well as the floor around the machine. 4 Gridley machines, other than the training acquired in the community college class. SBI, however, did not place Ms. Conner into Department 767, but placed her directly into Department 710. Thus, she did not receive the additional six months of training provided to the male machine operators initially placed in Department 767.3 George Schaefer, SBI's foreman and supervisor in Department 710, was responsible for pay raises, promotions, discipline, and terminations within the Department. On numerous occasions during the period when Ms. Conner was employed in Department 710, Schaefer stated explicitly that, in his view, women did not belong in the workplace at all. However, Schaefer testified at trial that he believed Ms. Conner had excellent mechanical ability, and estimated that of the ten persons SBI hired from the community college training program, Ms. Conner was probably number three from the top. J.A. 677. In May 1993, Ms. Conner was assigned to work on the second shift _________________________________________________________________ 3 When SBI hired additional machine operators in 1994, the men hired were again initially assigned to Department 767 for several months before being transferred into Department 710. As with Ms. Conner's placement in the previous year, SBI also placed Debra Rorer, another female hired into Department 710, directly into that Department without interim training in Department 767. In fact, the supervisor, George Schaefer, did not allow Ms. Rorer to operate Acme-Gridley machines for six months after she was hired as a machine operator in August 1994. When Ms. Rorer complained, Schaefer attempted to transfer her to a different department where women performed assembly work. However, Ms. Rorer insisted that she should be trained to operate the AcmeGridley machines, and the personnel manager, Mr. Keller, intervened on her behalf. Keller required Schaefer to permit Ms. Rorer to continue to work in Department 710, as she had been hired to do. Ms. Rorer was then assigned to operate the Acme-Gridley machines, and she worked on the same shift as Ms. Conner prior to Ms. Conner's termination. A third female operator hired in Department 710, Stacey Haskins, also received no training. Schaefer showed Ms. Haskins how to turn on her machine and told her that the next day she would run the machine by herself. Hence, the men who worked in Department 710 received additional training that was not provided to any of the women who performed the same work. 5 (3:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., including mandatory overtime) in Department 710. J.A. 188. However, an auto accident the following month hospitalized her and caused an eight-week medically excused work absence. Upon her return, she did not receive the regular training in machine operations that the men hired with her were receiving. For example, when a machine malfunctioned, supervisor Bruce Boyd would explain and demonstrate to the male operators how to fix the machine, and he permitted the male machine operators to assist him. If Ms. Conner's machine malfunctioned, however, Boyd simply fixed it without showing or explaining what he did, rolled his eyes at her, and refused Ms. Conner's requests to participate and to learn how to fix the machines.4 J.A. 104. Ms. Conner specifically asked Mr. Schaefer to see that she was provided with comparable training. However, he dismissed her request by responding that she had a high rate of absenteeism. J.A. 660. Mr. Schaefer took no action to improve Ms. Conner's training in machine operating techniques. Boyd also instructed the male machine operators, on an ad hoc basis, on special procedures essential to operation of the AcmeGridley machines. For example, some machines processed round metal bars, whereas others processed hexagonal bars. The round bars would fall into place when the machine operators beat them in to the machines. In contrast, beating on the hexagonal bars achieved nothing, as those bars had to be turned gently by hand until they slipped into place. Significantly, Ms. Conner received absolutely no instruction or assistance on how to load the hexagonal bars. When she tried to beat them into place, Boyd and Schaefer mocked her and laughed at her failure. In fact, they also encouraged other male employees to laugh at her.5 At home at night, Ms. Conner cried and soaked her blistered hands, acquired from her attempts to force the hexagonal bars into the machines. When she asked her brother, fellow employee Jay _________________________________________________________________ 4 Likewise, when co-worker Stacey Haskins's machine malfunctioned, Boyd fixed it without showing her what he did. When Ms. Haskins asked Boyd how he fixed the machine, he responded, Never mind, just run it now. 5 The men also laughed at Ms. Rorer in 1995 when she began working on the Acme-Gridley machines, as she tried to beat hexagonal bars into place before learning how to properly load them. Ms. Conner then taught Ms. Rorer how to load the hexagonal bars. 6 Shelton, to show her how to load the hexagonal bars, he came to work early on his own time and did so. Ms. Conner was thereafter able to load the bars successfully.6 However, supervisor Boyd and Mr. Schaefer both accused Ms. Conner of having her brother do her work for her, and they transferred her away from Mr. Shelton to work on the first shift (7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.). J.A. 109, 274. Even then, Mr. Shelton continued to donate his personal time to training his sister in machine set-ups7 and tool settings. Such set-ups and tool settings were difficult but necessary skills for a machine operator, in order to prevent a machine malfunction from disrupting production. When it became apparent to Ms. Conner's supervisors that she was not relying on her brother to do her work, and that she actually preferred working on the first shift, she was transferred back to the second shift. 2. Unauthorized Disciplinary Action Against Ms. Conner In the Fall of 1993, SBI granted Ms. Conner general permission to leave work early when there were no tasks for her to perform, consistent with its policy of permitting employees to volunteer to leave when there was a lack of work. Then, in November 1993, because Ms. Conner had been leaving work early, Mr. Schaefer denied her a regular pay increase to $9.08 per hour, instead assigning her a lower $8.55 per hour pay rate. Significantly, alterations in an employee's pay rate on the basis of asserted attendance problems were not authorized by SBI's disciplin_________________________________________________________________ 6 Mr. Shelton was also an Acme-Gridley machine operator on the second shift and had received training in Department 767. He witnessed the Department 710 employees making fun of Ms. Conner when she tried to load the machines with hexagonal bars, and he observed that no one would assist her. 7 When a machine operator changes a machine's settings in order for the machine to produce a different part, the operator performs a set-up. This process involves changing the machine's tooling, and adjusting each tool according to blueprint specifications. Machine operators who performed set-ups were ranked at a higher grade, and thus received higher pay rates. 7 ary policy. SBI's Work and Safety Rules provide only that an employee who engages in prohibited practices (including repeated tardiness or absenteeism, and leaving work during scheduled work hours without authorization) shall be subject to discharge, suspension, or a written or oral reprimand as appropriate. J.A. 973. Ms. Conner had never been disciplined in her SBI employment for any reason during the prior nine years. J.A. 115. 3. Extra Burden in Ms. Conner's Job Assignments Because the Acme-Gridley machines were idiosyncratic-- each required its own particular techniques in order for it to perform well -- new machine operators were typically assigned to a specific machine and first learned how to keep that particular machine operating. An inexperienced machine operator would then advance to learning machine set-up and unplanned tool-setting only after having gained basic operating skills on a single machine. As a result of single-machine training, the machine operator's efficiency and productivity were greater. Contrary to this usual practice, however, Mr. Schaefer repeatedly moved Ms. Conner from one machine to another. This caused her to spend a much greater proportion of her time on machine set-up and unplanned tool setting rather than on production, as compared to her male co-workers. For the period from October 1994 through April 1995, Ms. Conner spent 139.3 hours on machine set-up and unplanned tool setting.8 J.A. 993. By comparison, male Acme-Gridley machine operators in Department 710 spent only 82.5, 48.3, 40.9, 15.5, 12.2, and 12.1 hours on these activities during the same time period. Id. Ms. Conner was also assigned to operate Acme-Gridley machines that were producing dissimilar products and thus had dissimilar tool settings. These assignments differed from those of male machine operators, who operated machines that were producing similar products. Not unexpectedly, the machine operators that produced similar products obtained greater efficiency and productivity, resulting from the uniformity of their work and the ability to directly transfer knowledge gained from one machine's functioning to other machines per_________________________________________________________________ 8 Likewise, Ms. Haskins spent 131.3 hours on these tasks during the same period. 8 forming the same tasks. Ms. Conner's disparate assignments prevented her from obtaining an equivalent efficiency and productivity. Male machine operators were also assigned to operate machines that were located in a more convenient manner, side by side, again promoting greater efficiency and productivity. By contrast, Ms. Conner was assigned to operate machines that were physically separate from one another, so that she would have to leave one machine unattended if she had operating problems on a distant machine. Being unable to simultaneously watch her machines had adverse practical consequences. For example, when an Acme-Gridley machine broke a drill bit and Ms. Conner could not see the machine from across the factory, it wiped out all the tooling before I could even know it -- know it wasn't producing work . . . it took probably three to four hours to get it set back up and running.9 J.A. 135. Ms. Conner's assignments to machines that were far apart from each other further affected her efficiency and productivity. The extra complexity of Ms. Conner's duties also caused her to experience heightened job-related stress. 4. Disparate Floor Mopping Duty If Ms. Conner asked for assistance, or if her machine malfunctioned, Mr. Schaefer regularly stated to her, You can mop the floor. That's something you can do. You -- You should already know how to mop the floor. J.A. 113. Even when her machine was functioning properly, if a male operator's machine failed, Schaefer would reassign the male operator to Ms. Conner's functioning machine and would order Ms. Conner to mop the Department's entire floor, on both sides of all the machines. On those occasions, Ms. Conner lost the credit that she would have received for producing parts with her machine. While Ms. Conner manually mopped the floor of the Altavista plant using a large mop and a bucket for squeezing the mopped oil and water into, her co-workers would shout at her,Cheryl, mop the floor. Mop the floor, Cheryl. At least you could do that. J.A. 138-39. _________________________________________________________________ 9 Mr. Schaefer also required one of the other female operators, Ms. Rorer, to operate machines that were physically separated. 9 These events occurred regularly, approximately fifteen times per month. On the other hand, male operators mopped the floors around their own machines, but were not required to mop the entire floor unless it was at the end of the day. In these instances they received overtime pay for doing so, and unlike Ms. Conner (who was required to use a hand mop and bucket), the male operators rode a cleaning machine with a large squeegee on the bottom of it to mop the floor.10 J.A. 163. Schaefer justified his decisions in this regard by stating to Ms. Conner, Why would I take a qualified machine operator and have them mop the floor and you run a [multi-spindle] machine? J.A. 293. Conversely, the male machine operators were not ridiculed when they performed mopping tasks. Ms. Conner's mopping assignments resulted in her being less productive than the male operators and caused her to suffer substantial stress. 5. Verbal Disparagement of Ms. Conner When Ms. Conner became frustrated in dealing with a malfunctioning machine, Mr. Schaefer would ask her, within the hearing of other employees, Are you on the rag today? Didn't you get any last night? J.A. 134. This occurred approximately ten to twenty times per month.11 J.A. 239. By contrast, when male machine operator Noel Farrell became angry due to balky machinery, he was neither ridiculed nor disciplined when he left his shift early without permission, merely announcing, I'm leaving . . . I'm sick of this. I'm frustrated. Id. Ms. Conner suffered from daily headaches and nausea resulting from the humiliation she experienced at work. She was unable to take _________________________________________________________________ 10 Of significance, Mr. Schaefer also required the other female coworkers, Ms. Rorer and Ms. Haskins, to mop the entire floor during their regular work shifts, which prevented them from operating their machines during that time. Ms. Rorer mopped the entire floor approximately three times per week. 11 Schaefer also made similar derogatory remarks to Ms. Haskins, such as Are you on the rag?, on three occasions when she was not smiling or in a good mood. J.A. 326-27. Ms. Haskins would cry later at home from the degradation of Schaefer's remarks. 10 the medication prescribed for her symptoms, though, because its label warned her not to work around heavy equipment while taking it. Ms. Conner hated going to work because of the humiliation that she experienced there. However, because Ms. Conner was the sole support for her young son, she was unable to resign, and she lived in constant fear of losing her job at SBI. 6. Forced Display of Bloody Pants In January 1994, Ms. Conner was briefly hospitalized due to uterine hemorrhaging. She experienced several unexpected episodes of uterine bleeding during the remainder of her employment at SBI, until her May 1995 termination. If the bleeding was heavy, she became faint, which was dangerous if she was near the active machinery. To stop the bleeding, Ms. Conner had to remain immobile in bed for a period of time. Approximately ten of these bleeding incidents occurred at work, between January 1994 and May 1995. Each time a hemorrhaging episode occurred at work, she wrapped a rag around her waist to cover her bloodied pants, went to Schaefer's office, and asked for permission to go home. Ms. Conner was acutely embarrassed by the visible bloodstains on her pants. In such situations, Schaefer told Ms. Conner, You show me that you're bleeding, and I'll let you go. J.A. 137. Significantly, Schaefer never referred Ms. Conner to SBI's on-site nurse for a medical verification of her problem. Ms. Conner's co-workers could see her unwrap the rags from her waist to display her bloodied pants to Schaefer in his open office, which also had a large glass window facing the factory work area. 7. Failure to Investigate Disparate Treatment Complaints Beginning in January 1994, Ms. Conner complained on numerous occasions to the plant's personnel manager, Mr. Keller, concerning her improper treatment by Mr. Schaefer. SBI's Anti-Harassment Policy required investigation of employee complaints thoroughly and promptly to the fullest extent practicable. J.A. 1067. During 1994, Ms. Conner spoke to Mr. Keller on three separate occasions about the unreasonable differential treatment to which she was subjected by her supervisors in the workplace. Indeed, she asked Mr. Keller to observe 11 her supervisors' treatment of the employees in Department 710 and to investigate further. Despite these complaints, Keller failed to either observe how Ms. Conner was treated or review her daily labor activity sheets. These activity sheets demonstrated that Ms. Conner spent far more time on machine set-ups and unplanned tool settings than the male machine operators. Instead, Keller simply spoke to Ms. Conner's supervisors, Schaefer and Boyd, about her. Mr. Keller concluded from those conversations that Ms. Conner was not treated differently from other employees. Although Keller had assured Ms. Conner that he would contact her after investigating her complaints, he failed to follow through. 8. Lower Pay Rate for Ms. Conner In March 1994, Mr. Schaefer evaluated Ms. Conner's attendance and production quantity as satisfactory. According to Boyd, Ms. Conner had no performance or aptitude problems in her job, and she was among the top employees of the Altavista plant with respect to her ability to keep the Acme-Gridley machines functioning. Mr. Keller agreed that there was never any problem with Ms. Conner's quality and quantity of production, her attitude, or her safety record at work. However, in March 1994, Ms. Conner was advised that she would not receive a pay raise comparable to that received by male operators who were less experienced and less skilled than she was, because of her absences from work. She asked Mr. Schaefer to explain why she was not classified in the set-up pay grade. To qualify for the higher pay grade, a machine operator must have learned how to set up her machine. Ms. Conner regularly performed set-ups for male machine operators who could not perform their own set-ups, but the men received the higher set-up pay rates. Indeed, she sometimes came into the plant on Sunday (a regular day off) to perform set-ups for male machine operators. Mr. Schaefer responded that she would do what she was told to do -- without question -- or she could leave. During the period from October 1994 through April 1995, SBI paid a number of male machine operators -- who were hired after Ms. Conner -- $10.47 per hour to perform the skilled tasks of machine set-ups and 12 unplanned tool setting. These men performed these skilled tasks less frequently than Ms. Conner did, but Ms. Conner was paid a rate of only $9.44 per hour -- over a dollar per hour less than the male coworkers.12 On September 9, 1994, Ms. Conner overslept her 7:00 a.m. starting time, and at 7:25 a.m. she called the plant to inform them that she would be at work as soon as possible. When she arrived, Mr. Keller counseled her about her intolerable andunacceptable performance, and he included a written warning to her, based on thirty-six absences and eight tardies for the year. Of those absences, twenty were medically excused accompanied by a doctor's note, and five were vacation days.13 Later, in November 1994, Schaefer evaluated _________________________________________________________________ 12 Ms. Haskins and Ms. Rorer were also paid less than the male machine operators who performed the same specialized work, and their pay progression ceased shortly after their employment began. Ms. Haskins achieved a pay rate of $8.53 per hour, and Ms. Rorer attained an $8.08 per hour rate. Ms. Conner advised her supervisor that her lower pay rate was unfair, especially considering that a male co-worker, Noel Farrell, was regularly tardy and left work early without permission, and that he did so without being disciplined. Shortly afterwards, Farrell received a written warning that documented two incidents of tardiness, and advised him that another unexcused tardiness would result in a three-day suspension. (Farrell's attendance record at the Altavista plant does not show either of the two tardy arrivals referenced in his supervisor's written warning.) When Ms. Conner missed two days of work in August 1994 due to an unexpected death in her family, she was placed on suspension for two days without pay because of an unexcused absence. She complained to Mr. Schaefer that her suspension was unfair, in light of Farrell's regular unexcused absences that were not disciplined. Five days later, Farrell was suspended for one day without pay when he arrived two hours late without an excuse. 13 At trial, Schaefer incorrectly characterized Ms. Conner's attendance record as by far the worst and still probably one to two times greater than the next person in the [D]epartment, even excluding her medically necessary absences. Ms. Conner had 36 unexcused absences during her SBI employment. In comparison, male operators Richard Harvey and Jay Shelton had 36 13 Ms. Conner's attendance and production quantity assatisfactory, the same as on her previous evaluations, and noted that her attendance and attitude . . . has much improved. J.A. 979. 9. Timing Ms. Conner's Breaks with A Stopwatch In late 1994, Mr. Boyd followed Ms. Conner about the plant with a stopwatch, timing her while she was in the ladies room and when she was on breaks. He engaged in timing Ms. Conner's breaks for approximately a month and a half. By contrast, Boyd did not time male machine operators. On January 3, 1995, Mr. Schaefer evaluated Ms. Conner's performance as barely meets requirements for production quantity and stated that she was slightly neglectful in attendance. He concluded that Ms. Conner needed to improve her attendance, production and performance. However, there was no consideration given to the disproportionate amount of time that Ms. Conner had been assigned to machine set-ups and unplanned tool setting, or the time that she spent mopping the Department's entire floor area. Then, in early January 1995, SBI disciplined Ms. Conner for returning eight minutes late from a timed break that began when she entered the ladies room to wash off machine oil. 14 In contrast, breaks _________________________________________________________________ and 44 absences, respectively, for the same time period (May 1993 through May 1995). Shelton was never disciplined based on his absences, and according to the plant manager, Martin Giudice, Shelton's absences were about average, not excessive. Similarly, SBI's records show that Noel Farrell had 27 absences and 28 tardies from December 1993 (when he began working at the plant) to May 1995. See supra note 12 (SBI's records overstated Farrell's actual work attendance). 14 In comparison, Mr. Schaefer failed to discipline male machine operator Richard Harvey when, on January 13, 1995, Harvey pulled out his knife and started to sharpen it while Mr. Schaefer spoke to him about inappropriate actions the previous day -- when Harvey threw a knocker rod at work that could have injured others, and when he purposely broke a machinery part. In response to Harvey's knife-sharpening activity, Schaefer told Harvey that he was scaring Schaefer. According to Schaefer, it was clear he was trying to intimidate me. 14 by the male machine operators did not begin until after they had completed cleaning machine oil off of themselves and had exited the restroom. Male machine operators also frequently extended their breaks for an extra ten minutes, without any reprimands for doing so. In fact, Ms. Conner often operated the machines of her co-workers during the time that they overstayed their breaks. 10. Termination Threat as Response to Discrimination Complaint On January 18, 1995, Ms. Conner requested a meeting with the Piedmont Manufacturing Division's president and plant manager, Martin Giudice, concerning differences between the employment conditions for her and those of her male co-workers. Mr. Giudice prepared for the meeting by reviewing Ms. Conner's record; he decided that in the meeting, he would express to her his disapproval of her attendance record. This meeting took place on January 23, 1995, with Ms. Conner, Mr. Giudice, and Mr. Keller in attendance. According to Ms. Conner, during the meeting Mr. Giudice dismissed her complaints by directing her to do what her supervisor told her to do, and further directing her not to worry about what male machine operators in the Department were doing. Ms. Conner responded that, in her view, Giudice's response constituted sexual discrimination. Giudice then slammed his fist down on his desk, stood up, and screamed at her that if this ever comes out of your mouth again, you will be fired right here on the spot right now. J.A. 155. Ms. Conner sat mute and crying for the remainder of the meeting, and then exited. Stacey Haskins, who happened to be in the hallway outside Giudice's office at the time, saw that Ms. Conner was upset and crying as she left the meeting. At trial, SBI presented evidence that Mr. Keller wrote a memorandum describing the January 1995 meeting, which vaguely characterized Ms. Conner as having complained of unfairly being selected by her supervisors for monitoring and discipline. Significantly, this memorandum did not note any response to Ms. Conner's complaint. Keller's memorandum states that Mr. Giudice informed Ms. Conner that her attendance was unacceptable, and that if she failed to change her behavior her employment would be terminated. Keller failed to record any mention of sexual discrimination. Both Giudice 15 and Keller signed the memorandum, which was placed in Ms. Conner's employment record. Ms. Conner was not informed of the memorandum's existence and did not review it at any time while she was employed at SBI.15