Hennick v. Schwans Sales Enterprises, Inc., C 00-3024-MWB.
| Decision Date | 03 October 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. C 00-3024-MWB.,C 00-3024-MWB. |
| Citation | 168 F.Supp.2d 938 |
| Parties | Michelle L. HENNICK, Plaintiff, v. SCHWANS SALES ENTERPRISES, INC., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
Pamela J. Walker, Sherinian & Walker Law Firm, Des Moines, Iowa, for plaintiff.
Bruce L. Cook, O'Hagan, Smith & Amundsen, L.L.C., Chicago, IL, for defendant.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................ 941
II. LEGAL ANALYSIS ...................................................... 943
A. Standards For Summary Judgment ................................... 943
1. Requirements of Rule 56 ....................................... 943
2. The parties' burdens .......................................... 943
3. Summary judgment in employment discrimination cases ........... 944
B. Hennick's Pay Discrimination Claim ............................... 945
1. The prima facie case .......................................... 946
a. "Equal work" ............................................... 946
b. Unequal pay and the scope of comparison .................... 947
i. The Sowell rule ....................................... 947
ii. The Hutchins rule ..................................... 947
iii. The appropriate rule .................................. 949
2. Hennick's prima facie case .................................... 950
C. Discriminatory Failure To Hire, Train, Or Promote ................ 951
1. Absence of an actionable detriment ............................ 952
2. Business judgment ............................................. 955
D. Constructive Discharge ........................................... 957
III. CONCLUSION .......................................................... 958
In this action, plaintiff Michelle Hennick asserts claims against her former employer, defendant Schwans Sales Enterprises, Inc., for sex discrimination in violation of the Equal Pay Act (EPA), 29 U.S.C. § 206(d), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, and the Iowa Civil Rights Act (ICRA), IOWA CODE CH. 216. This matter comes before the court pursuant to the defendant's July 23, 2001, motion for summary judgment on all of Hennick's claims. Schwans contends, in essence, that Hennick is merely complaining about her job assignment, which was within Schwans's business judgment, in the absence of any evidence generating an inference of sex discrimination.
Although the court will not attempt an exhaustive discussion of the undisputed and disputed facts presented by the record in this case, some discussion of the factual background is required to put in context Hennick's claims and the parties' arguments for and against summary judgment. Those facts include a synopsis of the nature of Schwans's business, Hennick's employment with Schwans, and the circumstances under which Hennick left that employment.
Schwans sells frozen food directly to customers in their homes through a system of depots and route managers (RMs), who deliver products, collect payment, and solicit further orders. Thus, at the times pertinent to this lawsuit, RMs primarily serviced existing customers on established routes. However, in mid-1998, in an effort to build customers in its Western Iowa District, Schwans inaugurated the position of new account specialist (NAS), which was new to that district, but not new to the company. Unlike RMs, NASs did not service an existing route, but instead devoted their time to soliciting new customers and providing them with information about Schwans's products and services. Thus, NASs attempted to build customers for new routes, which would eventually be serviced by RMs. Schwans contends that NAS and RM positions occupied the same level in the company hierarchy. However, RMs were paid straight commission for sales to existing customers, while NASs were paid a daily guarantee, plus new customer bonuses and commissions on their occasional sales to new customers. Both RMs and NASs would initially undergo the same on-the-job training (OJT), to become familiar with Schwans's services and products, although their "field" training differed, because RMs were trained to manage an assigned route of existing customers, while NASs were trained to solicit new customers. New hires were therefore designated either OJT/NAS or OJT/RM. During OJT, both OJT/NASs and OJT/RMs were paid a daily guarantee, because neither had the ability to earn significant commissions during that phase of their employment. Although Hennick contends that NAS and RM positions were substantially equivalent in qualifications and duties, particularly during OJT, Schwans contends that the two positions were not substantially equivalent, except in terms of hierarchy in the company, because they required different skills and job duties.
Hennick began working for Schwans on September 7, 1998. Although she contends that she applied for a position with Schwans in response to an advertisement for RMs, Schwans's District Manager Joe McLimans concluded that Hennick would be better suited to a position as a NAS. Schwans contends that Hennick was hired to become a NAS, but Hennick contends that she accepted what she thought would be a temporary position as an OJT/NAS, until a RM position opened. Hennick was initially paid a daily guarantee of $100 as an OJT/NAS. Of the six other persons in OJT at the same time as Hennick, all male, and all designated OJT/RMs, two, Helmer and Leeper, were paid the same daily guarantee as Hennick, while four were paid more: Hanna ($110), Niemier ($110), Dolocheck ($120), and Diemer ($140).
Hennick's job performance during OJT apparently was satisfactory. However, she contends that her field training, including "ride-alongs" with RMs, was delayed, because McLimans told her it was more important for "the guys" to get their RM field training. Hennick frequently expressed her frustration at not being assigned to routes as a RM as such routes became available, but McLimans told her that she needed to do the NAS job for which she had been hired. Although Schwans contends that McLimans told Hennick that it was not out of the question that she would eventually be assigned to a position as a RM, Schwans also contends that McLimans's and others' observations of Hennick's performance during OJT confirmed McLimans's original evaluation that Hennick did not have the personality characteristics that would make her a successful RM. Hennick contends that she was never told that she lacked any qualifications, with regard to her personality or otherwise, that would bar her from becoming a RM. Indeed, she contends that she performed the same tasks as RMs a significant portion of the time while working as a NAS, such that qualification for the NAS position indicates her qualification for the RM position, and that she in fact substituted for RMs on numerous occasions without complaints about her performance. Contrary to Schwans's contention, Hennick asserts that McLimans eventually told her that she would never be a RM in his or any other district.
Matters came to a head in November of 1998, some two and a half months after Hennick started her employment with Schwans. Hennick had an extensive conversation with McLimans during which she again voiced her concerns that she was not being allowed to receive training for or to take a position as a RM, that she was being paid less than comparably situated males, and that her hours were too long. Although McLimans responded by increasing Hennick's daily guarantee to $120 and informing her that she could take off every other Friday, because he contends that he feared losing a successful NAS, Hennick contends that McLimans told her she would never be a RM. Hennick contends that, because her goal in applying for and accepting a job with Schwans was to become a RM, when McLimans foreclosed that opportunity, her whole reason for "employment with Schwans was nil." Hennick left her employment on November 17, 1998, and did not return calls from Schwans concerning her intentions to return to work. Hennick eventually found other employment with the Iowa National Guard.
In her Complaint, filed April 12, 2000, Hennick contends that the determining factor in Schwans's failure to hire or train her for, or to promote her to, a RM position, and for the differential in pay to which she was subjected, was her sex, in violation of state and federal law. She contends, further, that Schwans's conduct made her working conditions so intolerable that she was constructively discharged. Schwans disputes Hennick's claims and on July 23, 2001, moved for summary judgment in its favor on all of them.
The court heard oral arguments on Schwans's motion for summary judgment on September 14, 2001. At the oral arguments, plaintiff Hennick was represented by Pamela J. Walker of the Sherinian & Walker Law Firm in West Des Moines, Iowa, and defendant Schwans was represented by Bruce L. Cook of O'Hagan, Smith & Amundsen, L.L.C., in Chicago Illinois. This matter is now fully submitted.
This court has considered in some detail the standards applicable to motions for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in a number of prior decisions. See, e.g., Swanson v. Van Otterloo, 993 F.Supp. 1224, 1230-31 (N.D.Iowa 1998); Dirks v. J.C. Robinson Seed Co., 980 F.Supp. 1303, 1305-07 (N.D.Iowa 1997); Laird v. Stilwill, 969 F.Supp. 1167, 1172-74 (N.D.Iowa 1997); Rural Water Sys. # 1 v. City of Sioux Ctr., 967 F.Supp. 1483, 1499-1501 (N.D.Iowa 1997), aff'd in pertinent part, 202 F.3d 1035 (8th Cir.), cert. denied,...
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