Fraser v. Mta Long Island Rail Rd., 12–CV–5778 (KAM)(CLP)

• Decision Date: 31 March 2018
• Docket Number: 12–CV–5778 (KAM)(CLP)
• Citation: 295 F.Supp.3d 230
• Parties: Charmaine FRASER, Plaintiff, v. MTA LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

295 F.Supp.3d 230

Charmaine FRASER, Plaintiff,

v.MTA LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD, Defendant.

12–CV–5778 (KAM)(CLP)

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

Signed March 31, 2018

Saul D. Zabell, Zabell & Associates, P.C., Bohemia, NY, for Plaintiff.

Kevin Patrick McCaffrey, Law Dept., Jamaica, NY, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MATSUMOTO, United States District Judge:

Plaintiff Charmaine Fraser ("plaintiff") brings this action against her employer, defendant MTA Long Island Rail Road ("LIRR" or "defendant"), alleging gender discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.§§ 2000e et seq. , as amended ("Title VII"), the New York State Human Rights Law, N.Y. Exec. Law §§ 290 et seq. (the "NYSHRL"), and the New York City Human Rights Law, N.Y. City Admin. Code § 8–101 et seq. (the "NYCHRL"), as well as violations of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d) (the "EPA") and the New York State Equal Pay Law, N.Y. Labor Law § 194 (the "NYEPL"). Defendant now moves for summary judgment with respect to the Title VII, NYSHRL and EPA claims alleged in plaintiff's amended complaint. For the reasons set forth above, defendant's motion is granted. The court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the causes of action brought under the NYCHRL and the NYEPL, which are dismissed without prejudice to pursuing them in State court.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise stated, the following facts are either not in dispute, taken from plaintiff's own version of events, or taken from documents provided by counsel. Plaintiff is an African–American woman who was born in March 1978. (Declaration of Saul D. Zabell in Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment ("Zabell Declaration"), Ex. 15; Declaration of Kevin P. McCaffrey in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment ("McCaffrey Declaration"), Ex. II.) In May 2000, at age 23, she was hired by the LIRR as an Assistant Conductor. (Defendant's Rule 56.1 Statement ("Def. 56.1"), ¶ 1; Plaintiff's Rule 56.1 Counterstatement ("Pl. 56.1"), ¶ 1.) In late 2001, she became an Assistant Stationmaster ("ASM") trainee. (Def. 56.1, ¶ 2; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 2.) She remained an ASM trainee until August 2002, when she "became a qualified ASM." (Pl. 56.1, ¶ 2.)

ASMs are unionized and represented by the Transportation Communications Union (the "TCU"). (Def. 56.1, ¶ 4; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 4.) Their duties include supervising ushers, ensuring proper crewing on trains, ensuring trains leave on schedule, ensuring customer and employee safety, and making announcements. (Def. 56.1, ¶ 3; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 3.) According to an organizational chart provided by plaintiff, there are approximately 20 ASMs, all of whom report to the General Stationmaster (the "GSM"). (Zabell Declaration, Ex. 4.) The GSM, in turn, reports to the General Superintendent—Terminal Operations. (Id. , Exs. 4, 5.)

When plaintiff became an ASM, the GSM was a man named James Burns. (Def. 56.1, ¶ 5; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 5.) Burns retired three or four years later, in June 2005. (Def. 56.1, ¶ 6; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 6.) According to plaintiff, she was approached by Kenneth Walther, then the Superintendent of Penn Station, and asked if she would consider applying for Burns' position. (Transcript of Plaintiff's Oct. 25, 2013, Deposition ("Pl. Dep. I") (attached to the McCaffrey Declaration as Exhibit A), pp. 24–25.) Plaintiff, who was newly married, nine-months pregnant and unfamiliar with the GSM's duties, declined to do so. (Id. , p. 25–26.)

Burns was replaced by another man, Lachlan Cameron, who became GSM in late July 2005. (Def. 56.1, ¶¶ 8–9; Pl. 56.1, ¶¶ 8–9.) Walther appointed plaintiff as his assistant. (Pl. Dep. I, p. 30.) Among the tasks which she performed in that capacity was management of the "ASM Board"—essentially, the work schedule for all the ASMs. (Id. , pp. 31–32, 46.)

Even though each ASM bid on and "owned a job," the GSM had authority to reassign the ASMs as needed. (Id. , pp. 34–35.) Cameron "would utilize seniority ... the best he could" in making assignments, but he would not assign an ASM to a job that he or she could not handle. (Id. , p. 35.) Although this did not happen frequently, plaintiff recalled an instance in 2007 or 2008 which an ASM Barrett was removed from the "extra list" and placed on a "relief job" because Cameron thought that Barrett was "having a hard time managing his schedule ...." (Id. , pp. 36–37.) Plaintiff also recalled that Barrett, who "owned" the position on the extra list and who had not requested the transfer, called Cameron to express displeasure. (Id. , pp. 36, 38.)

Cameron retired effective December 1, 2008 (Def. 56.1, ¶ 25; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 25), and plaintiff became Acting GSM. (Pl. Dep. I, p. 48.) In that capacity, she attended a meeting with Vincent Campasano, who was soon to become General Superintendent—Terminal Operations. Prior to the meeting, she and others made jokes which offended Campasano. (Pl. Dep. I, pp. 56–57.) After the meeting, Campasano telephoned plaintiff, complained that she "didn't show him any respect" and "semi-implied" that she would not be considered for the GSM position because her husband, another LIRR employee, had a disciplinary record. (Id.) Although plaintiff did not know if Campasano called other attendees as well, (id. , p. 69,) she testified that she was subsequently told by Williams Gibbons, then the General Superintendent of Penn Station and the head of her department, not to joke with Campasano until after she was awarded the GSM position. (Id. , pp. 56–57.)

On February 1, 2009, the MTA's Office of the Inspector General (the "IG") received an anonymous complaint regarding the manner in which plaintiff was scheduling the ASMs. The complaint, a copy of which is included in Exhibit T to the McCaffrey Declaration, alleged that plaintiff was "racially targeting and providing Overtime for some of her closest friends/employees," rather than following the "union work rule" of awarding overtime based on seniority. The complaint further alleged that the ASM Board was never filled out until "Friday after everyone has done the assigned shifts or is [sic ] to[o] late to change anything." (McCaffrey Declaration, Ex. T.) Copies of the complaint were sent to Campasano, Gibbons and Rod Brooks, the Chief Transportation Officer. (Id. )

On February 11, 2009, Helen E. Williams, the President of the LIRR, referred the complaint to Brooks; S.M. Drayzen, the Vice President of Labor Relations; and others for a response. (Id. ) That same day, plaintiff was promoted to GSM. (Def. 56.1, ¶ 30; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 30.) That promotion, however, ended up costing her almost $30,000 per year. (Transcript of plaintiff's Jan. 2, 2014, Deposition ("Pl. Dep. II") (attached to the McCaffrey Declaration as Exhibit B), p. 164.) Prior to the promotion, plaintiff's base salary was $78,927.68 (Def. 56.1, ¶ 29; Pl. 56.1, ¶ 29), but she was also paid four overtime hours each day to compensate for her work as Acting GSM. (Pl. Dep. I, p. 48.) As a result, she was actually earning over $118,000 per year. (Zabell Declaration, Ex. 2; Affidavit of Charmaine Fraser in Opposition to defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment ("Plaintiff's Affidavit"), ¶ 1.) When she was promoted, her salary increased to $93,000, but the position was "Non–Represented" and, accordingly, she was no longer eligible for overtime. (Zabell Declaration, Exs. 2 & 5.)

Plaintiff was aware that Cameron's salary upon his retirement had been $95,982, and requested that she receive the same salary. (Zabell Declaration, Ex. 1, p. 9.) According to a memorandum which plaintiff sent to Raymond P. Kenny, LIRR's Senior Vice President of Operations, on April 21, 2010, and which is attached to the Zabell Declaration as Exhibit 1 (hereafter, the "April 2010 Memorandum"), she met with Campasano, who represented that Cameron's last paycheck included compensation for unused vacation days, that increasing plaintiff's salary would necessitate increasing other salaries, and that Brooks did not approve the increase. (Id. ) Plaintiff claims that she subsequently spoke with Cameron and Brooks, who contradicted two of Campasano's three stated reasons. (Id. )

Following her promotion, plaintiff, who was only 30, received some "push back" from ASMs and unsuccessful applicants for the GSM position. For example, an engineer told plaintiff that he overheard Liam Clampett—a Transportation Manager who unsuccessfully applied for the GSM position—complain that plaintiff "only got the job because of who she is and what she is." (Pl. Dep. I, pp. 51–52.) One of the ASMs, a Mr. Teresky, left the department after plaintiff denied his application for an additional meal period, stating that "no little black girl was going to tell him what to do." (Id. , pp. 127–28.) Teresky further stated that plaintiff had been promoted only because another woman, Judith Issan, did not want the job. (Id. , p. 128.) Plaintiff never complained about Teresky's conduct. (Id. , p. 129.)

In the months following plaintiff's promotion, the Transportation Department conducted an investigation into the anonymous complaint against plaintiff. That investigation, which was described in a memorandum prepared by Drayzen in May 2010 (McCaffrey Declaration, Ex, U), ultimately determined that plaintiff had not engaged in any wrongdoing. However, the investigation determined that there was no set procedure for selecting which employees received overtime assignments and "weaknesses ... in general administrative record keeping" relating to these assignments. (Id. )

The Transfer of the ASM Board

On February 23, 2010, plaintiff had a meeting with Brooks, in which the Chief Transportation Officer proposed transferring the ASM Board to the Crew Dispatcher (also called the Crew Management Office or Manpower Office), who handled the scheduling of most other LIRR employees. According to plaintiff's April 2010 Memorandum, Brooks thought that the computer system used by the Crew Dispatcher would "remove the human factor" in...