Mazzella v. RCA Global Communications, Inc.

• Citation: 642 F. Supp. 1531
• Decision Date: 10 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 83 Civ. 3716 (WCC).,83 Civ. 3716 (WCC).
• Parties: Laura R. MAZZELLA, Plaintiff, v. RCA GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. and RCA Communications, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

642 F. Supp. 1531

Laura R. MAZZELLA, Plaintiff, v. RCA GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. and RCA Communications, Inc., Defendants.

No. 83 Civ. 3716 (WCC).

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

September 10, 1986.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

McKenna & Schneier, Valley Stream, N.Y., for plaintiff; Patrick Michael McKenna, Alan N. Schneier, of counsel.

Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn, New York City, for defendants; Bettina B. Plevan, Elizabeth A. Alcorn, of counsel.

OPINION AND ORDER

WILLIAM C. CONNER, District Judge:

Plaintiff Laura Mazzella ("Mazzella") brought this action against her former employer, RCA Global Communications, Inc. ("Globcom"), for alleged violations of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17 (1982), and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d) (1982).¹ Mazzella raises four claims: (1) that Globcom summarily discharged her on December 14, 1981 in whole or in part because she was pregnant; (2) that the terms of her discharge were less favorable than those routinely accorded to similarly situated male employees; (3) that Globcom requires female employees who become pregnant to advise the company of their pregnancy as soon as possible, and that this requirement violates title VII; and (4) that for no legally justifiable reason her male replacement was paid a higher salary for doing the same job.

This case was tried before the Court sitting without a jury. At the close of the trial, the parties agreed to submit posttrial memoranda, which I have carefully reviewed. This Opinion and Order constitutes my findings of fact and conclusions of law as required by rule 52(a), Fed.R. Civ.P. For the reasons set forth below, I conclude that Mazzella has failed to prove her claims by a fair preponderance of the credible evidence, and consequently, her complaint must be dismissed. I shall address each of Mazzella's contentions in the order set out above.

I. Mazzella's Discharge

Plaintiff's first contention is that she was discharged from her job with Globcom in whole or in part because she was pregnant. In connection with this claim, I make the following findings of fact:

A. Findings of Fact

Mazzella was a female employee at Globcom from April 1971 through December 14, 1981. She graduated from high school in 1968 and then attended secretarial school for 10 months. She has no college education nor has she taken any academic or business related courses since completing secretarial school.

Mazzella joined Globcom as a secretary, and was promoted a number of times. These promotions culminated in her elevation in 1975 to the position of sales representative in the Satcom marketing department with a pay grade of 43. Tr. at 137-38, 195-96; see PX 2, PX 4. By her own admission, Mazzella had problems performing as a sales representative, and she was removed from that position. Tr. at 196-97.

In March 1976, she secured a transfer to the Industrial Relations ("IR") or personnel department with no reduction in salary or pay grade. Tr. at 139, 197-98; PX 2. Mazzella had no training, educational background, or prior experience in personnel work. Tr. at 136-37, 199.

Plaintiff's first work in the IR department was in the records section. Tr. at 139, 198. In 1977, she was transferred to the department's benefits section, where she was primarily responsible for processing medical insurance claims. Tr. at 141. Both jobs were essentially clerical in nature. Tr. at 198-99, 529.

While in these positions, Mazzella was an adequate, but not outstanding employee. Each year Mazzella received a merit pay increase, see PX 2, but not as large an increase as other employees and not as much as plaintiff thought appropriate, tr. at 205-06. Mazzella's immediate supervisor in the benefits section, John Farber, was generally satisfied with her work, but Farber's supervisor, Dominick Zurlo, was critical of Mazzella's performance. He found that she spent too much time on personal telephone calls, socialized too much during working hours, was late in processing claims, and took excessively long lunch breaks. Tr. at 483-84.

It is clear, however, that Mazzella had the potential to perform ably when she chose to do so. Globcom received several letters from persons inside and outside the company praising Mazzella's performance. Indeed, even Zurlo indicated that he believed that Mazzella "was a very bright person and that she knew how to do her job if she put her mind to it." Tr. at 486. But whether she had the potential or not, it is clear that more than one or two people believed that Mazzella's actual performance left something to be desired. Mazzella herself admitted that the then Vice President of Industrial Relations, Robert McHenry, was dissatisfied with her work and was trying to remove her from the department. Tr. at 214.

In June 1979, plaintiff transferred to the department's employment section, where she reported to Richard Wilder, the Manager of Employment and Records. Tr. at 141, 142. Mazzella's title was Industrial Relations Representative and she was responsible for recruiting new employees. This was the first position in which Mazzella had significant professional level responsibilities. Charles Twitty, the new Vice President of Industrial Relations, found Mazzella's performance during this period adequate. Tr. at 419-21.

On December 27, 1980, plaintiff married, and in January 1981, she became pregnant. The pregnancy was a difficult one, and Mazzella went on a medical leave of absence beginning in March 1981. Tr. at 149. Globcom had a liberal pre-disability and disability leave policy. An employee could take an unpaid pre-disability leave any time prior to an anticipated disability. See PX 7. A pregnant employee was entitled to a paid maternity leave for four weeks before and six weeks after a child's birth. Tr. at 402. Such an employee was entitled to return to her same or a similar job after this ten-week period. Tr. at 402-03, 456-57. Of the 42 Globcom employees who took a maternity leave between 1979 and 1983, each either returned to the same or a similar job with no reduction in salary, or resigned voluntarily while on leave. None was discharged. See Tr. at 461-63; DX LL.

Mazzella suffered a miscarriage, and returned to her job on May 26, 1981. Tr. at 149-50. Upon her return, Mazzella's immediate supervisor was Alvin Silverstein. Wilder had resigned from Globcom just before Mazzella went on her disability leave, and Silverstein was hired to replace him as Manager of Employment and Records. Tr. at 150, 287. Silverstein testified that his new job was not a career step upwards, and conceded that one could reasonably argue that it was, in fact, a step down from his previous position. Tr. at 393-94.

When Silverstein was hired, Globcom's President, Valerian Podmolik, informed him that he was expected to improve the company's personnel activities. Specifically, Podmolik directed Silverstein to put the employment activities on a par with the company's technical accomplishments, to increase the speed of recruiting, and to create a personnel department that Podmolik could be proud of. Tr. at 286.

From May 1981 through Mazzella's discharge on December 14, 1981, the employment section was essentially a three-person operation consisting of Silverstein, Mazzella, and a woman named Nancy Charles. Silverstein managed the unit and did recruiting for certain upper-management and engineering positions. Tr. at 294-95. Mazzella and Charles shared the balance of the work. See PX 13. Mazzella was responsible for recruiting new employees for marketing, engineering, operations, union, Globcom Systems, Inc., and international services positions. In addition, she was responsible for ordering employee service awards, helping to organize the 25-year award dinner, approving employee "family store" purchases, organizing the annual savings bond drive, logging employment requisitions, running the job-posting program, and developing an employee orientation program and employee handbook. Tr. at 291-93. Charles, on the other hand, was responsible for recruiting new employees for computer programming and financial department positions. She was also responsible for running the employee suggestion program, arranging employee relocations, making periodic reports to the Equal Employment Opportunity authorities, and recruiting students for the Minorities in Engineering Program. Tr. at 288-91. While Mazzella was responsible for a greater number of assignments, the amount of work she had to do was roughly equal to the amount Charles had to do. Tr. at 287-88. Both Mazzella and Charles were expected to spend about 90 percent of their time on recruiting.

In July 1981, Silverstein met with Mazzella to present her scheduled annual salary increase, the amount of which had been previously determined by Wilder, Silverstein's predecessor. Tr. at 295. Silverstein had been informed that, under company policy, he could defer granting Mazzella the increase because she had been absent for several months on medical leave. Tr. at 151, 295. However, he decided to give Mazzella the pay raise because he thought it was important to start his relationship with plaintiff off on the right foot. When Silverstein informed Mazzella that she would receive a salary increase, she initially expressed surprise, stating that she had not expected to receive the raise. Tr. at 295. But before the meeting was over, Mazzella began to express disappointment with the size of the increase. Id. Silverstein responded that there was room for growth within her salary grade, and that if her performance warranted it, he could recommend her promotion to a higher salary grade. Tr. at 296.

But beginning in June 1981 and continuing through plaintiff's discharge in December 1981, Silverstein became cognizant of many deficiencies in Mazzella's work performance. These included problems in nearly every area of Mazzella's responsibilities. For...