Opinion ID: 779803
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Removal From Service

Text: 41 Next, Burlington Northern says that the district court erred when it found that White's suspension constituted an adverse employment action. Burlington Northern argues that White's suspension was not the final employment decision required for an adverse employment action because the railroad reinstated White with full back pay, including overtime pay, and full benefits. Burlington Northern primarily relies on Dobbs-Weinstein v. Vanderbilt University as support for this proposition. 42 In Dobbs-Weinstein 5 we held that a suspension was not an adverse employment action. Dobbs-Weinstein v. Vanderbilt Univ., 185 F.3d 542, 545-46 (6th Cir.1999). Moreover, a reinstatement which puts the plaintiff in the position she would have been in absent the suspension, constitutes the ultimate employment decision thereby negating a potentially adverse intermediate employment decision. Id. 43 In Dobbs-Weinstein, a professor sued Vanderbilt University under Title VII for an allegedly discriminatory denial of tenure. Id. at 543-44. The philosophy department initially recommended tenure be given, but the Dean rejected the department's recommendation, and denied plaintiff's tenure. Id. at 543. Through an internal grievance process, Vanderbilt reversed the Dean's decision. Id. at 544. The university promoted plaintiff to associate professor with tenure retroactive to the date the Dean should have granted tenure. Id. The university also gave the professor all back pay retroactive to the date the Dean should have promoted her. Id. Despite the favorable result she received, the professor sued Vanderbilt for the interim emotional distress she suffered, potential damage to her reputation, and interest on the back pay. Id. 44 The trial court in Dobbs-Weinstein granted the defendant summary judgment, and this Court affirmed. Id. at 545. Although the review process of the tenure denial lasted eighteen months, this Court held that the professor was not entitled to recover because she did not suffer an ultimate adverse employment decision as the university ultimately gave tenure. Id. at 545-46; see also Jackson v. City of Columbus, 194 F.3d 737, 752 (6th Cir.1999) (holding that the thirty-day suspension of an African American police chief did not constitute an adverse employment action because the decision did not ultimately constitute a termination of employment, a change in salary, demotion, loss of benefits, decreased work hours, or significantly diminished material responsibilities.). We reasoned that employees should not challenge intermediate employment decisions when the ultimate employment decision is not adverse to the plaintiff. Dobbs-Weinstein, 185 F.3d at 546. We further elaborated: 45 Dobbs-Weinstein has not created a claim for employment discrimination by suing Vanderbilt before the final decision on her promotion and tenure was made. She argues that her claims for emotional distress and professional reputation damages mean that her claim is viable, but that argument places the cart before the horse. A claim for potentially recoverable damages does not transform Venable's decision into an adverse employment action. Dobbs-Weinstein succeeded in the grievance process, and Vanderbilt's final decision was to grant her tenure. She has not here suffered a final or lasting adverse employment action sufficient to create a prima facie case of employment discrimination under Title VII. To rule otherwise would be to encourage litigation before the employer has an opportunity to correct through internal grievance procedures any wrong it may have committed. 46 Id. (emphasis added). 47 Other courts have also held that an adverse employment action must be based on an ultimate employment decision by an employer. See, e.g., Mattern v. Eastman Kodak Co., 104 F.3d 702, 707 (5th Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 932, 118 S.Ct. 336, 139 L.Ed.2d 260 (1997); Page v. Bolger, 645 F.2d 227, 233 (4th Cir.) ( en banc ), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 892, 102 S.Ct. 388, 70 L.Ed.2d 206 (1981) (holding that Title VII prohibits only ultimate employment decisions which are retaliatory and not interlocutory or mediate decisions.); see also Hopkins v. Baltimore Gas & Elec. Co., 77 F.3d 745, 755 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 818, 117 S.Ct. 70, 136 L.Ed.2d 30 (1996). 48 The district court sought to distinguish Dobbs-Weinstein. The district court noted that the Dobbs-Weinstein professor never stopped working and never suffered a break in payment. 6 Here, White lost all pay and benefits immediately upon her suspension. The district court also found crucial the fact that White faced permanent termination in contrast to the professor. 49 We reject these arguments. First, although the professor continued to work during the appeals process, she did lose the increased pay and benefits associated with tenure. In fact, when the university granted the professor's tenure, it also gave her retroactive back pay to the date that it should have granted tenure. This period was 18 months long. By contrast, White waited only thirty-seven days before the railroad reinstated her and gave her back pay. We also reject White's arguments that the fact that her suspension occurred during the Christmas holiday season makes her suspension unique. White misplaces this argument. While emotional injuries may be affected by the season, it does not make the suspension a sufficiently adverse employment action. 50 We also note that contrary to the district court's assertion, the Dobbs-Weinstein plaintiff also faced termination if she did not affirmatively appeal the tenure denial. At the time the university notified the professor of the tenure denial, it also informed the professor of her termination, effective at the end of the academic year. The fact that the Dobbs-Weinstein plaintiff bore the onus of initiating the review process did not alter our conclusion there that the professor had not suffered an adverse employment action. We fail to see why the result should be any different here. Further, the employment action complained of must be the ultimate employment decision. Here, the review process resulted in White's reinstatement. Therefore, her suspension was not the ultimate employment decision. 51 More important, the Dobbs-Weinstein professor did lose pay for approximately three months from August, 31, 1995 to November 1995. Dobbs-Weinstein, 185 F.3d at 544 (noting that in November 1995 after the university reversed the tenure denial, the professor was given full pay for the period after August 31, 1995, when payment for her previous contract had ended.). Following the tenure denial, the professor's appointment expired in August 1995, the end of the academic year. The university reversed the denial of the tenure in November 1995. Therefore, the Dobbs-Weinstein plaintiff received no pay from the university for three months. Yet, we found that the reinstatement with back pay and benefits stopped the original tenure decision from being an adverse employment action. 52 Additionally, the district court's reasoning ignores the inescapable fact that Burlington Northern ultimately reversed White's suspension and reinstated her with full back pay and overtime. Burlington Northern's suspension of White was the first step in the employment decision making process. But, it was only an interim decision. The railroad had a grievance process available to challenge such decisions. The internal investigation was the next step in the chain. The railroad timely completed this investigation and reinstated White with full back pay and benefits thirty-seven days after her suspension. Therefore, White's appeal of her suspension prevented Burlington Northern's interim decision from becoming final. The dissent in Dobbs-Weinstein supports this position: 53 Unlike the majority, I am not concerned that permitting Dobbs-Weinstein to go forward with her action will encourage premature litigation concerning adverse initial employment decisions. As long as an employer's appeal or grievance process operates in a timely fashion, the employee generally will not suffer a materially adverse action. This is particularly true if the employer refrains from terminating the employee in the interim, but, even if the employee is wrongfully terminated, voluntary reinstatement and provision of back pay will limit or possibly even obviate the recovery of compensatory damages. 54 Id. at 548 (Moore, J., dissenting) (emphasis added). 55 The cases White cites in support of her contention that temporary suspensions are adverse employment actions are distinguishable. The employer upheld all of the suspensions in those cases. See Gribcheck v. Runyon, 245 F.3d 547, 549 (6th Cir. 2001) (upholding fourteen day suspension); McKethan-Jones v. Ohio Dept. of Health, 7 Fed.Appx. 475 (6th Cir.2001); Dowell v. Rubin, 234 F.3d 1268 (6th Cir. Oct.31, 2000) (upholding five day suspension without pay). Therefore, the employee did not recover lost wages and benefits. 56 White's final argument is that Dobbs-Weinstein is limited to academic tenure cases. We disagree. In fact, we cited to Dobbs-Weinstein in a racial discrimination claim outside the tenure setting, for the proposition that a police chief did not suffer an adverse employment action where he suffered no final or lasting harm. See Jackson, 194 F.3d at 752. 57 Additionally, the dissent says that Dobbs-Weinstein is inapplicable outside the tenure setting because we relied exclusively on tenure decisions in making our determination in Dobbs-Weinstein. Again, we disagree. In fact, we cited a non-tenure case as support for our conclusion that a Title VII plaintiff must suffer an `ultimate employment decision.' Dobbs-Weinstein, 185 F.3d at 545 (stating we are not alone in focusing on whether Dobbs-Weinstein can present a case based on an `ultimate employment decision' and citing Page v. Bolger, 645 F.2d 227, 233 (4th Cir.1981) (postal discrimination case)). 58 Finally, we also disagree with the dissent's assertion that a suspension for a university professor does not have as severe an impact as a suspension for a blue collar employee. The dissent ignores the adverse impact that a suspension or denial of tenure has on a professor's academic reputation. This reputational consequence, which exists to a lesser degree in the blue collar setting, can be more damaging in the long-term to a university professor than a temporary suspension for a blue collar worker. Accordingly, we find that White failed to show an adverse employment action sufficient to make out a Title VII retaliation claim.