Beatty v. Custom-Pak, Inc.

• Citation: 624 F.Supp.2d 1045
• Decision Date: 08 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 3:08-cv-00058-JEG.,3:08-cv-00058-JEG.
• Parties: Shane J. BEATTY, Plaintiff, v. CUSTOM-PAK, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

624 F.Supp.2d 1045

Shane J. BEATTY, Plaintiff, v. CUSTOM-PAK, INC., Defendant.

No. 3:08-cv-00058-JEG.

United States District Court, S.D. Iowa, Davenport Division.

June 8, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Daniel D. Bernstein, Earl A. Payson, Davenport, IA, for Plaintiff.

Dorothy A. O'Brien, Attorney & Counselor Law, PLC, Davenport, IA, for Defendant.

ORDER

JAMES E. GRITZNER, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on a Motion for Summary Judgment brought by Defendant Custom-Pak, Inc. (Custom-Pak). The Court held a hearing on the Motion on May 7, 2009. Earl Payson and Daniel Bernstein represented Plaintiff Shane J. Beatty (Beatty), and Dorothy O'Brien represented Custom-Pak. The matter is fully submitted and ready for disposition.

I. SUMMARY OF MATERIAL FACTS¹

Beatty began working as a machine operator at Custom-Pak in February 2006. He was an employee who over time had garnered a history of disciplinary issues, including tardiness, absenteeism, and failure to do quality checks. In May 2006, Custom-Pak issued a written warning to Beatty for failing to give Custom-Pak notice prior to being absent from work. On another occasion, Beatty failed to come in to work an early shift for which he had been scheduled.

As part of his job as a machine operator, Beatty was responsible for doing quality checks four times per day on the parts he manufactured. However, the parts Beatty manufactured repeatedly failed to meet quality standards. In May 2006, Beatty received a written warning for failing to do the required quality checks, a mistake which resulted in over four hundred parts being rejected for failure to meet quality standards. That same month, Beatty also received a low performance evaluation score, which caused Custom-Pak's human resources coordinator Vicki Rixen (Rixen) to consider terminating Beatty's employment.

Beatty's next discipline came in July 2006 when he received a written warning for taking an overly long break. In October 2006, Beatty was given a warning about his attendance problems for the previous six months. That same month, Beatty received a warning for neglecting to include some hardware in a shipment of plastic toilet seats. In order to remedy the problem, Custom-Pak had to open each package, insert the omitted hardware, and close the package again.

In February 2007, Beatty received yet another warning for failing to perform quality assurance on his parts. On that occasion, Beatty's supervisors had told him four times to identify the parts he made by stamping his name on them; but Beatty failed to do so. One month later, in March 2007, Beatty received his fourth attendance-related written warning, this time for failing to report to work at his scheduled time.

In May 2007, Custom-Pak made an investigation into a harassment complaint from one of Beatty's co-workers, Justin Ploog, who alleged that Beatty had waived his penis at Ploog. Custom-Pak assigned Jay Claeys (Claeys), an operations facilitator, to investigate the complaint. Two Custom-Pak coaches who were present at the time of the alleged incident said they had not observed anything. Beatty denied the specific details of the incident, though he did admit that some horseplay had been going on. Ultimately, Claeys concluded that there was not enough evidence to either exonerate Beatty or determine that he was at fault.

In June 2007, Custom-Pak gave Beatty a "final warning" regarding his employment status. However, the particular performance failure was neglecting to do quality checks during the last four hours of his shift, and the required improvement addressed the consistency of these quality checks.

The record reflects Beatty's managers were very dissatisfied with Beatty's work performance. In May 2007, Custom-Pak supervisor Lori Wenger sent an email to the other managers complaining that Beatty was talking to a friend of his instead of working. Claeys assessed Beatty as an "immature kid" who, while capable of performing his job adequately, chose not to do so. Despite Custom-Pak's policy that machine operators were not supposed to shut down their machines in order to get their own parts, Beatty admitted to shutting down his machine and abandoning it for up to ten minutes at a time because he ran out of necessary parts. Claeys also received complaints from supervisors that Beatty would shut off his machine and walk around while the supervisors were not looking.

Amanda Montroy (Montroy), Beatty's supervisor during his final six months of employment, had similar complaints: about once a week Montroy would find that Beatty had shut down his machine and was visiting with co-workers instead of working. In addition, Montroy considered Beatty one of her less productive employees and said she had problems with Beatty becoming argumentative when she would ask him to perform tasks.

Production manager Jessica Streeper (Streeper) felt that, while Beatty was a competent machine operator, he was disrespectful of authority. Streeper's opinion was based partly on conversations she had with Montroy about Beatty's argumentative demeanor and partly on personal interactions with Beatty in meetings, where he would talk to other employees and not pay attention while Streeper was presenting. Streeper was also involved in giving Beatty his "final warning" in June 2007, commenting that, of all the quality-assurance problems Custom-Pak had experienced with its employees, Beatty's was a very big deal and would require improvement. Plant Manager Ron Zimmer (Zimmer) described Beatty as "one of the poorest performers" at the factory, not because of his ability to operate the machines but because of his failure to follow rules and perform quality checks. Zimmer also said that Beatty's poor interaction with his supervisors was a constant issue.

Custom-Pak has a policy of awarding a twenty-cent-per-hour premium pay to employees who have perfect attendance. With the exception of approved leave such as that taken under the FMLA, an employee who misses a day loses the premium for sixty days. At the end of the sixty days, the employee can again qualify anew for the premium. Beatty qualified for the premium intermittently throughout his employment with Custom-Pak and was qualified during the summer of 2007. However, on August 3, 2007, Beatty called in to give notice that he would not be reporting for his scheduled shift. Because of this absence, Custom-Pak removed Beatty's perfect-attendance premium pay for the following week.

On August 6 or 7, 2007, Beatty had a flare-up of a pre-existing hernia, which caused him to seek medical attention. Beatty's doctor wrote a note that recommended Beatty be switched to a light-duty shift, which Beatty presented to Rixen on or about August 7, 2007. Rixen advised Beatty that Custom-Pak did not offer light duty but that he could either take FMLA leave or have his doctor return him to full duty. Beatty returned on September 5, 2007, with another doctor's note, this time releasing him to work full duty. Rixen helped Beatty fill out the FMLA paper-work to cover his four weeks absence and retroactively approved his FMLA leave.

The next day, September 6, 2007, Beatty reported to work for the first time following his FMLA leave. At some point during the shift, Zimmer came through the plant giving certain employees a fifty-dollar bonus because the plant had met its production goals. Though Beatty testified that the bonus was only given to employees that had been at Custom-Pak during the production period, Beatty also received the production bonus even though he had been on FMLA leave during the production period.

At the end of his shift, Beatty became frustrated that co-worker Jamie Assenmacher (Assenmacher) was not helping to clean up the machines. Beatty was upset because the employees could not leave work until the cleaning was finished, and he approached Montroy to ask her why Assenmacher was not helping to clean up. Montroy explained that Assenmacher was training another employee and needed to remain with the trainee for safety reasons. Beatty asked why Assenmacher was allowed to talk to the maintenance workers, then abruptly left and returned to his workstation before Montroy could reply. Montroy testified that Beatty had "a little bit of an attitude," that he became "snippy" towards her, and that she could tell by Beatty's voice that he was angry that Assenmacher had not been cleaning. Def. SOF at ¶ 54; Pl. Resp. to Def. SOF at ¶ 54; Def. App. at 56, 59, Dep. 19, 34.

According to Assenmacher and co-workers Hannah Stebens (Stebens) and LaRee Krogman (Krogman), they were talking in the factory parking lot after the shift ended when they saw Beatty drive past them and yell something at Assenmacher. None of the women related exactly what Beatty allegedly yelled, but Stebens described it as "rude" and containing "vulgarities and swear words," and Krogman described it as "derogatory." Def. App. at 24, 48, 68-69. At the time the alleged incident occurred, Assenmacher was facing away from Beatty's vehicle. Beatty denies he said anything and claims the only thing he did in the parking lot was to make plans to meet up with other co-workers at a local bar. Custom-Pak employee Josh Wulf (Wulf), who was a passenger in Beatty's car that night, testified that Beatty did not say anything to Assenmacher. Instead, Wulf said that he and Beatty were listening to loud, angry, heavy-metal music and were singing and getting into the music.

Several minutes after the alleged incident, Stebens saw Montroy leaving the plant and asked her to join the group of women. Stebens told Montroy that Beatty was yelling things at Assenmacher that were cruel and harassing.² The next morning, Montroy called her supervisor, Streeper, and informed her of the previous night's events.

After receiving the news from Montroy, Streeper shared it with Rixen. Rixen then interviewed the three women, as well as other employees that had been in the parking...