Opinion ID: 165841
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Production and Attendance

Text: On May 10, 1999, Ms. Burns was hired by the Mint as a probationary employee in the position of Counting Machine Operator, working the graveyard shift. The duties of a counting machine operator include using a counting machine to count and bag a specified number of cents, nickels, dimes and quarters. At the Mint, probationary employees like Ms. Burns are hired for a oneyear trial period, during which their performance, attendance and compliance with workplace polices are monitored, and they are required to demonstrate fitness for permanent hiring. Counting machine operators are required to meet certain numerical production standards for each type of coin, and performance below 95% of the standard is considered unacceptable. An employee may be terminated at any time during the probationary period for failure to demonstrate fitness and qualifications for continued federal employment, and has no right to warnings or progressive forms of discipline. During the period of Ms. Burns's probationary employment with the Mint the demand for new U.S. coins increased. As a result, the Mint operated twenty- -3- four hours a day, seven days a week, which resulted in employees generally being required to work a six-day-per-week schedule. The Mint also gave employees the option of volunteering to work on the seventh day of each week. Attendance is a concern for the Mint because employees with unreliable attendance interfere with its ability to meet demanding production requirements. During Ms. Burns's job interview, when asked whether she could work overtime, including six days a week, she said she could. However, according to Ms. Burns, both the individual who interviewed her and the doctor who performed her pre-employment medical examination for the Mint told her employees hardly ever worked overtime at the Mint. During a period of at least twenty weeks, between June 1999 and March 2000, Ms. Burns volunteered to work overtime on her one scheduled day off. In addition, for a total of twelve weeks between July 1999 and March 2000, she voluntarily worked more than forty-eight hours a week. During her probationary period, Ms. Burns never informed her direct supervisor, Tom Romero, that working overtime caused any medical problems and never asked him to excuse her from working scheduled overtime for any reason. While Ms. Burns volunteered to work overtime, her personnel records are -4- replete with performance appraisals evidencing deficiencies in her performance and attendance. Records show she failed to perform at the 95% required level on certain coins throughout her probationary period; they also contain entries by Mr. Romero stating he verbally counseled Ms. Burns about her production deficiencies, after which, he noted, she continued to perform below the required level. In addition, due to numerous incidents of tardiness and uses of unscheduled leave, personnel records show Mr. Romero verbally counseled Ms. Burns, warning she would be required to bring in medical documentation each time she called in sick. While Ms. Burns gave sundry reasons for being late and taking unscheduled leave, one notation shows the reason she gave for missing work on September 30, 1999, was for a “lupus flare-up.” On December 17, 1999, Mr. Romero prepared a document which stated Ms. Burns failed to meet performance standards and had received counseling on her attendance; it also stated that if she failed to improve her performance, she would be discharged from her probationary employment for non-production. Ms. Burns signed the document, indicating it had been discussed with her. Thereafter, records show Ms. Burns was tardy at least one more time, had at least ten more unscheduled leave occurrences, and her production on nickels continued to be below the required 95% level. In total, over the course of her -5- eleven-month probationary employment, Ms. Burns was tardy for work at least seven times and took unscheduled leave at least eighteen times. 1 On April 18, 2000, Ms. Burns took another sick leave absence, and on the same day, the Mint fired Ms. Burns, effective April 19, 2000, based on “unacceptable” or “unreliable” attendance and “unacceptable” or “substandard” production output. Three years after her termination, and two years after an unsuccessful EEOC agency action, Ms. Burns filed the instant action against the Mint, asserting its employees failed to accommodate her disability relating to lupus and subjected her to sexual harassment and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the Rehabilitation Act. The record reveals the following evidence relating to her claims.