Opinion ID: 201844
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Territory reorganization

Text: 47 In March 2000, BIPI realigned the sales territories in Puerto Rico to accommodate an expansion of its sales force from five PSRs to seven PSRs. Ramírez asserts that the realignment had a negative impact on him and another PSR, Félix Ruiz, who was 58 years old at the time, and that the more desirable territories were given to the new 28- and 35-year old PSRs. 14 Ramírez focuses on the fact that Ponce was removed from his territory and replaced with Arecibo, which has fewer specialists spread over a wider geographical area. He emphasizes that his new territory had 88 specialists and Ruiz's had 82 specialists, while the 28- and 35-year-old PSRs' territories had 208 specialists and 121 specialists, respectively. While acknowledging that territories had been reorganized, and that Ponce had been removed from his territory before, Ramírez asserts that the process followed in prior reorganizations was different. Appellant and Mr. Félix Ruiz were consulted, and all changes were discussed with them prior to becoming in effect.... The 2000 reorganization was [behind] closed doors. Together, Ramírez asserts, this evidence is sufficient to create a dispute of material fact as to whether the reorganization reflected a discriminatory animus. We disagree. 48 Ramírez has conceded that BIPI has reorganized its territories in the past and that Ponce was removed from his territory in 1995. Although he has not explained the circumstances of the 1995 removal, it is notable that he does not assert that the 1995 removal was motivated by a discriminatory animus. The only difference he cites between prior reorganizations and the 2000 reorganization is that during prior reorganizations, PSRs were consulted and that new employees were given less complex territories. The fact that PSRs were not consulted before the 2000 reorganization is not evidence that the reorganization was carried out in a discriminatory way. Nor has Ramírez offered evidence that the 2000 reorganization was a deviation from BIPI's policy — if BIPI had such a policy in the first place — of assigning less complex territories to newer PSRs. He has pointed out only that the newly created territories had more specialists than his, not that they were somehow more complex.