Paul v. Tsoukaris
| Decision Date | 17 March 2017 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 13-5891 (KM) (JBC) |
| Parties | Akash PAUL, Plaintiff, v. John TSOUKARIS, Field Office Director, DHS/ICE, and Jeh JOHNSON, Secretary of Homeland Security, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey |
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The pro se plaintiff, Akash C. Paul ("Paul"), a former employee of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"), commenced this action on October 3, 2013. On January 7, 2015, Paul filed an Amended Complaint (referred to herein as the "Complaint" and cited as "AC")1 alleging that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE (collectively, "DHS") discriminated against him based on his national origin as to wages, and discriminated against him based on his disability by monitoring or stalking him at work. Paul alleges that, in doing so, DHS violated his rights under (1) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; (2) the Equal Pay Actof 1963 ("EPA"), 29 U.S.C. § 206(d); (3) Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.; (4) the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 791 et seq.; and (5) the Civil Rights Act of 1991, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.2
Now before the Court is Defendants' motion for summary judgment. (ECF no. 68) For the reasons set forth herein, Defendants' motion is granted as to all counts.
A. Relevant Facts3 The plaintiff, Akash Paul, was born outside of the United States (in India, as it happens). He speaks English, but he states that his English-language skills are imperfect. Before starting work at DHS, Paul had completed a Master's Degree and had been employed as a Sheriff Processing Associate in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where he "showed exemplary service." (AC ¶ 3)
On April 8, 2008, ICE's Newark Field Office posted an employment vacancy announcement (identification numbers 184127 and 181298) seeking to hire Detention and Removal Assistants ("DRAs"). (Def. Facts ¶ 1) Around May 2, 2008, Paul applied for a vacant DRA position, and underwent screening conducted by the California-based Laguna Service Center ("LSC"). (Id. ¶¶ 2-3; AC ¶ 3, Ex. 5-6)4 LSC also determined pay grade ranges for prospective employees. (Def. Facts ¶ 4) After compiling a list of qualified candidates, LSC reported the results to Supervisory Mission Support Specialist Noel Elia, who served as a liaison between the Newark Field Office Director and LSC. (Id. ¶¶ 6-7) Elia then forwarded the list and supporting documentation to Newark Field Office Director Scott Weber, the official with ultimate authority to make "hiring decisions and pay grade selections from the range provided by the LSC, based on the applicant's qualifications." (Id. ¶¶ 8-10) A panel of ICE supervisors interviewed the prescreened applicants, including Paul, and "determined which applicants to refer to Weber for a final hiring decision." (Id. ¶¶ 11, 14-16)
In May 2008, Weber selected Paul and seven other applicants for the DRA position. (Id. ¶ 17) On May 27, 2008, Elia provided to LSC Human Resource Specialist Leah Tougas a list of the eight applicants selected for hiringand the pay grades, or GS levels,5 that Weber had assigned each applicant. (Id. ¶ 19) In the e-mailed list, Paul was selected for the DRA position at the GS-7 level.6 (See id. ¶ 20) Within minutes, Tougas replied that "all of these selections are good." (Id. ¶ 21)
However, Tougas followed up two days later, acknowledging that she had "reviewed these applications too quickly." It had occurred to her, she wrote, that changes would need to be made to some applicants' pay grades in order to permit the hiring of E.G.,7 an intern at the Newark Field Office:
(Def. Facts ¶ 22, 25) Weber then lowered the pay grades for Paul, M.N., and T.D. to GS-5. (Id. ¶ 23-24)
Paul accepted the DRA position at the GS-5 level and began employment with DHS on August 18, 2008.8 (Id. ¶ 27; see also AC ¶¶ 1, 3)
On March 10, 2009, Paul sent an email to Elia requesting a reconsideration of his salary grade level. (Def. Facts ¶ 30; AC ¶ 3, Ex. pp. 9-10) That same day, Elia replied that the grade reconsideration request would have to come from Paul's supervisor in order for the Human Resources department to consider it. (AC Ex. p. 8) Paul contacted Human Resources Specialist Sandra Crellin, who referred Paul back to Elia, "because the selections and the grades come directly from the Field Office." (Id.)
On April 1, 2009, Paul was injured at work when a coworker startled him from behind with an air duster, causing Paul to hit his right elbow on a table and twist his neck.9 (AC ¶ 4) While out on disability for these injuries, Paul received a promotion on August 18, 2009, to GS-6, and again on August 18, 2010, to GS-7. (Def. Facts ¶¶ 31-33) Paul has stated that he graduated to GS-8 on August 18, 2011. (AC Ex. p. 43)
On November 5, 2010, Paul filed a complaint (dated October 29, 2010), with then-Acting Field Office Director John Tsoukaris. (Def. Facts ¶ 34; AC Ex. pp. 1-3) The bulk of that complaint related to Paul's work-related injury and issues concerning his return to work from disability leave. However, Paul alsocomplained that another employee was hired as a DRA in the same unit as Paul, but at a GS-7 salary level, because of her "prior experience as a contractor employee in the same building."10 Paul noted that this employee's "close relative is a supervisor in the same building with DHS/ICE." Paul explained that he reasonably expected to be hired at GS-7 because of his prior government experience (in Gwinnett County, Georgia) and his advanced degrees. Because (AC Ex. p. 3)
On November 7, 2011, Paul "filed a second claim for [workers' compensation] benefits based upon injuries he allegedly sustained" in the April 1, 2009 incident. (Def. Facts ¶ 48) That same day, Paul began a third and final attempt to return to work after receiving medical clearance to do so, albeit with restrictions. (See AC ¶ 3) Those restrictions were submitted to Mission Support Specialist Belinda Davis on a CA17 form. (Id.) Then, on November 28, 2011, Supervisory Detention Deportation Officer ("SDDO") Raquel Martinez11 directed Paul to photocopy an "A-file." (Id.) Paul asked to be exempted from photocopying the entire file because of the exertion required to repetitively pull down and lift the copy machine's lid. (Id.) Martinez brought a chair to the copy room for Paul to use, but nevertheless required Paul to photocopy the entire file. (Id.) That task allegedly aggravated Paul's injuries, and he was admitted to St. Trinitas Hospital in Newark, NJ, where the attending physician ordered Paul to stay home from work. (Id.)
On December 5, 2011, Paul completed his CA2a Notice of Recurrence and submitted it to Davis. (AC ¶ 4) That same day, Davis asked Martinez in an email whether Martinez had "ma[de] any accommodations or adjustments in [Paul]'s regular duties due to injury-related limitation." That information was needed to process a duty status report in support of Paul's application for workers' compensation benefits.12 (Def. Facts ¶¶ 49, 51; AC Ex. pp. 20 -21) In reply, Martinez summarized the work Paul was assigned and completed during the three weeks between November 7 and November 28, and included a three-sentence summary of the November 28 photocopying assignment.13 (Def. Facts¶ 52; AC Ex. pp. 20-21) Martinez's report "had no effect on Paul's wages or compensation," and "[f]ollowing Martinez's December 5, 2011 e-mail to Davis, Paul's application for benefits was granted." (Def. Facts ¶¶ 53-54)
On January 12, 2012, Paul received a package from Davis regarding his workers' compensation claim. The package included Martinez's December 5, 2011 e-mail to Davis. (Def. Facts ¶ 55) Reviewing the documents, Paul "was shocked to learn the content of the emails" sent by Martinez to Davis. (AC ¶ 5) Paul took this to "affirm[] that [he] was unduly watched or monitored or stalked even at [his] break time by [his] immediate supervisor SDDO Martinez." (AC ¶ 6) Around this same time, Paul conducted "further research" regarding his claim of wage discrimination, and learned that the employee hired as a DRA at the GS-7 level was named J.R. (AC ¶¶ 3, 7)
In a letter dated January 20, 2012, Paul complained to Tsoukaris that Martinez's email was discriminatory. (Def. Facts ¶ 56) On February 8, 2012, Tsoukaris "informed Paul that he could contact the ICE Office of EEO within 45 days of the most recent alleged discriminatory act." (Id. ¶ 59)
In a February 10, 2012 letter, Paul wrote to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") asserting two grievances. First, Paul stated that the DHS's lack of consideration of his academic qualifications and work experience when establishing his initial salary grade of GS-5, while hiring J.R. at the GS-7 level, "forced [Paul] to believe reasonably that [he] was discriminated [against]." (AC Ex. pp. 26-27) Second, Paul asserted that he was discriminated against and harassed by Martinez because her December 5, 2011 email (Id. Ex. 27)
On March...
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