Opinion ID: 772572
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Valmont's Warning of Lewis and Sharp

Text: 12 On Monday, July 28, 1997, Michael Sharp, an employee in the shipping department, took a malfunctioning machine to the plant's maintenance shop for repair. The maintenance shop is at the end of a building that also contains the large pole and small pole manufacturing departments. Sharp went first to the maintenance shop, then to the large pole department, where Edgar Lewis worked. Sharp found Lewis and they had a brief conversation. It is undisputed that Sharp's ordinary work duties would not take him to Lewis's department or work station. 13 Sharp later explained that when he discovered he did not have a pen needed to complete a maintenance request form, he went to find his friend Lewis to borrow one. Lewis walked to his nearby locker to find a pen. Sharp testified that he filled out the maintenance request form, entering the time as 8 a.m., and including the date and his signature, and went back to the maintenance shop. Lewis and Sharp both testified that their conversation lasted less than two minutes and consisted of Sharp asking for, receiving, and returning a pen to complete the maintenance form. 14 Foreman Sam Gregg and leadman Billy Dotson observed the conversation between Lewis and Sharp. In their later testimony before the ALJ, both denied having seen Lewis hand Sharp a pen or any other item. Dotson and Gregg testified that the conversation between Lewis and Sharp lasted between three and five minutes. As they watched the conversation, Gregg commented to Dotson [a]bout what [they] were seeing . . . about [Lewis] and [] Sharp's being together. Gregg privately speculated that the two were talking about the union. Valmont management and supervisors knew that Lewis, and, to a lesser extent, Sharp, had been active in the 1996 organizational campaign. Neither Gregg nor Dotson was able to hear what Lewis and Sharp said. 15 Later that day, Gregg reported to Allen Abney, the manufacturing manager, that he had seen Lewis and Sharp talk for a few minutes and that they stopped talking when they noticed Gregg and Dotson watching. Gregg did not mention his speculation that Lewis and Sharp were talking about union activities. 16 The second union organizational campaign began on Thursday, July 31, three days after Lewis and Sharp had their brief conversation. The campaign began with the union's distribution of cards to members of an in-plant organizing committee, including Edgar Lewis. The committee members were to obtain signatures on the cards and return them to union officials. Lewis took part in visiting employees at their homes in early August to talk to them about the organizational campaign. There is no evidence in the record that Valmont management knew of these visits. The record discloses that union supporters began distributing leaflets in the plant beginning on approximately August 10 and that leafleting at the plant entrance began on August 19. 17 On August 1, Lewis received a final written corrective action for wasting company time. The written warning, read by Abney in a meeting attended by Gregg, Dotson, and the human resources manager, Roger Bower, identified the date of violation as the week of July 28 and described the violation as follows: 18 Edgar Lewis has been observed numerous times wasting company time by not returning from break on time, talking to other employees at his work station during working time, leaving his assigning [sic] work station and distracting other employees while they are working. We counseled with Edgar on 11-27-96 regarding this unexceptable [sic] behavior. This behavior is a violation of company policy which states that intentional waste of time, loitering, or leaving an assigned work area during work hours without authorization, is not permitted. It is important that Edgar understands [sic] that waste of company time will not be tolerated and any other violation of company policy will result in further corrective action up to and including termination from employment. This is a final notice. 19 Lewis asked why he was receiving a final written warning when he had received no written warning in the previous six months. Valmont's written progressive discipline policy provides for discussion, a documented verbal reprimand, a written reprimand, final notice, then termination. Abney responded that the discipline was for a repetition of the conduct that had led to the final written warning Lewis received in November 1996. Lewis pointed out that under Valmont's policy, the six-month probation period after a final warning had elapsed two months earlier. Lewis asked how he could be accused of loafing when his production level was higher than that of the majority of employees in similar positions. Abney did not respond, other than by stating that Lewis had been seen leaving his work station to talk to other employees and talking to employees who visited his work station. 20 In the hearing before the ALJ, Abney testified that Gregg's oral report that Lewis and Sharp had talked for a few minutes on July 28 formed the basis for the final written corrective action issued to Lewis on August 1, 1997. Abney testified that during the August 1 meeting, Lewis admitted to his July 28 conversation with Sharp. Lewis disputed this testimony, asserting that neither Sharp's name nor a specific conversation was mentioned during the August 1 meeting. The written corrective action form does not refer to a conversation with Sharp. The ALJ credited Lewis's version of the meeting and found that Abney did not refer to Sharp or the July 28 conversation at Lewis's workstation in explaining why Lewis had received the final written warning. 21 Abney testified that he and Bower decided to give Lewis a written final warning on August 1, 1997, because Abney had orally counseled Lewis about disrupting employees while they [were] working and soliciting in April or May 1997. The ALJ noted that the written corrective action form did not mention oral warnings issued to Lewis in April or May 1997 and found that Abney and Bower did not refer to prior oral counseling when they gave Lewis the form in the August 1 meeting. Lewis testified that he had received no discipline since the November 27, 1996 written warning. The ALJ accepted Lewis's version as credible. However, the ALJ's treatment of the testimony relating to the prior oral counseling is inconsistent, as explained more fully below. 22 On August 5, 1997, Sharp also received a warning in the form of a written corrective action. The warning accused Sharp of loafing by leaving his assigned workstation. Sharp asked Bower for the name of his accuser; Bower did not respond. Sharp told Bower that he thought that the source was Dotson, who Sharp remembered seeing when he went to borrow Lewis's pen to fill out the maintenance request form. Sharp explained the reason he had gone to Lewis's workstation and told Bower to check with Sharp's leadman and to pull the maintenance request form itself for corroboration. Bower proceeded to issue Sharp the written warning. 23 Later that day, Bower reviewed the maintenance request form that Sharp had completed on July 28. Bower noted the time Sharp wrote on the form, 8:00 a.m. The following day, August 6, Abney asked Gregg to provide a written statement of his observations of the July 28 exchange between Sharp and Lewis. Gregg did so. He testified that Abney also asked Dotson to provide a written statement on August 6. Dotson testified inconsistently that he had already prepared a written statement on his own initiative on the date of the incident, July 28. The ALJ found that Dotson's testimony that he had prepared his statement on the day he saw Lewis and Sharp talking was not credible. 24 In their written statements, both Dotson and Gregg placed the time of the conversation they observed at 8:15 a.m., after Sharp had filled in the maintenance form. However, in their testimony before the ALJ, neither Gregg nor Dotson could recall the time of the conversation between Lewis and Sharp. Gregg and Dotson both testified that they did not look at their watches or a clock and had no way to determine the time or length of the conversation they reported. Their testimony was inconsistent with their written statements, which did state the time and length of the conversation they had witnessed. Both their testimony and written statements varied from Lewis's and Sharp's consistent accounts that they talked for less than two minutes, before Sharp submitted the maintenance request form at 8:00 a.m., and about finding a pen to complete that form. The ALJ found Gregg and Dotson to lack credibility and gave no weight to the time recorded in Dotson's and Gregg's written statements. 25 The ALJ credited Lewis's and Sharp's account of their July 28 conversation, finding that they talked for one to two minutes about Sharp's need for a pen to complete the maintenance request form, a work-related topic. It is undisputed that engaging in a work-related conversation on working time is not a valid basis for discipline at Valmont. 26