Opinion ID: 1188829
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Upshaw's pre-termination Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charges and lawsuit

Text: On August 13, 2003, Upshaw filed a charge with the EEOC contending that Ford had repeatedly refused to promote her on the basis of her race and sex. She alleged that she was the only Salary Grade 6 production supervisor in her work zone and that Ford had improperly promoted similarly-situated white male production supervisors to Salary Grade 7 while continually denying her the same promotion. On August 26, 2003, Brooks submitted Ford's response to the EEOC, denying that Ford had discriminated against Upshaw and explaining that nine of the ten employees promoted to Salary Grade 7 between January 1, 2000 and July 1, 2003 had been rated Excellent Plus, and that the remaining employee had been rated Excellent. Because Upshaw had been rated Excellent rather than Excellent Plus on her 2003 performance review, Ford stated that she had not been qualified for an in-series promotion. Ford's response included a chart depicting the Sharonville plant's promotion activity from 2000 through 2003. The EEOC dismissed Upshaw's charge. During discovery in this action, Brooks admitted that Ford's response to the EEOC was inaccurate because he had used the wrong year's performance reviews in preparing the chart. Although the chart showed all but one of the employees who received an in-series promotion in 2002 as having a rating of Excellent Plus, in fact, in 2002, two white males, Steven Fletcher and Stephen Green, were promoted from Salary Grade 6 to Salary Grade 7 with ratings of Excellent. Also, in August 2002, an African-American male, Charles Alexander, was promoted from Salary Grade 6 to Salary Grade 7 with less than an Excellent Plus rating. [1] Ford's chart also misstated Upshaw's 2002 rating as Excellent when she had actually been rated Satisfactory Plus. At his deposition, Brooks attributed the inaccuracies on the chart to his failure to verify the data compiled by an associate in his department. Brooks testified that he only learned of the mistake after drafting his response to the EEOC, at which point, he realized that Fletcher, Green, and Alexander should not have been promoted. Brooks never notified the EEOC of the error.
On January 28, 2004, Upshaw filed a second EEOC charge, alleging that in retaliation for her August 2003 EEOC charge, her supervisor, Robert Doug Baur, held a meeting with the hourly employees under her supervision without her knowledge. Ford denied Upshaw's claims and argued that only two Sharonville managers (neither of them Baur) were even aware of Upshaw's August 2003 EEOC filing. Ford also contended that Upshaw's complaint of differential treatment was too vague to allow Ford to respond in any detail. The EEOC dismissed Upshaw's complaint and issued her a right-to-sue letter, but she did not file a lawsuit within the allotted time. During discovery in the instant action, Ford produced internal emails to Baur and others that pre-dated Ford's response to the EEOC, mentioning Upshaw's 2003 EEOC charges, which Upshaw asserts establishes the intentional falsity of Ford's EEOC response. Moreover, Baur testified that he heard about Upshaw's 2003 EEOC charges before Ford drafted its response, but he could not remember the source of the information.
On June 15, 2004, Upshaw filed a third EEOC charge, alleging that on June 3, 2004, she was reprimanded for failing to wear a safety vest in a designated area in retaliation for her previous EEOC complaints. Ford filed a response with the EEOC listing seven salaried employees (four of whom were Caucasian) who were disciplined for a violation of Corporate Safety Rules, the same charge brought against Upshaw. Although the EEOC dismissed Upshaw's claim, she asserts that Ford's response misrepresented the facts because she learned during discovery that several of the safety violations attributable to the other employees were more serious infractions, and that she was the only salaried personnel at the Sharonville plant to have been disciplined for failing to wear a safety vest.
On November 4, 2004, Upshaw filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, alleging that Ford discriminated against her on the basis of her race and sex by failing to promote her to Salary Grade 7 and by subjecting her to heightened scrutiny.