Clements v. North American Stainless

277 F. Supp. 2d 705, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25362, 2001 WL 34131166
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Kentucky
DecidedSeptember 11, 2001
DocketCIV.A. 00-40
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 277 F. Supp. 2d 705 (Clements v. North American Stainless) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clements v. North American Stainless, 277 F. Supp. 2d 705, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25362, 2001 WL 34131166 (E.D. Ky. 2001).

Opinion

ORDER

HOOD, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiffs motion to amend her complaint [Record No. 52], and Defendant’s motion for summary judgment [Record No. 64]. The parties have filed their respective responses and replies [Record Nos. 65, 70 and 74]. These matters are now ripe for a decision.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Loretta Clements (“Clements”) was employed by Defendant North American Stainless (“NAS”) from 1992 until her discharge in 1999. NAS operates a manufacturing facility located in Ghent, Kentucky, where it produces high-quality stainless steel flat-rolled products. During her employment, Clements worked as a technician in the Environmental, or Wet Chemistry, Lab (‘Wet Lab”) in the Technical Department. There are three labs located in the Technical Department: the Wet Lab, the Mechanical Lab and the Steel Chemistry Lab.

At the time she was hired, until 1995, Clements’s supervisor was Eric Jasper (“Jasper”). He has testified that he did not have any problems with her work habits. Towards the end of his time as her supervisor, Jasper stated that Clements began to have attendance problems. When this was brought to her attention, Clements explained that she had just been diagnosed with diabetes. Jasper testified that this did not have a serious impact on *707 her work, as she made up the missed work.

In 1995, Kirk Brantley (“Brantley”) became Clements’s supervisor. In his deposition, Brantley testified that Clements was a good worker, but that she had tardiness and absenteeism problems. He also testified that he heard rumors that on the weekends Clements would swipe in, leave for the day, and then come back, swipe out, and go home. When he questioned her about this, she explained that she was leaving to perform work that had to be done outside the lab. Brantley said that he had no evidence that this was not what she was doing. Brantley also testified that he had didn’t recall any other complaints about other employees swiping in and leaving.

When employees would miss work, Brantley would allow them to make up that time at a later date. During his supervision of Clements, he testified that he stopped allowing Clements to make up missed work because he felt that she was abusing the privilege by doing it regularly. He also testified that he felt that Clements was using the phone for personal business and conversations, and that he counseled her that the phone was to be used only for company business.

In August of 1997, Tom Haney (“Haney”) replaced Brantley as Clements’s supervisor and as supervisor of the Technical Department. After he became supervisor, Haney began having conflicts with Deborah Dooley-Rohrer (“Rohrer”), an employee in the Steel Chemistry Lab. Because the Steel Chemistry Lab was so close to the Wet Lab, Clements often overheard loud arguments between Haney and Rohrer. At one point, in March of 1998, Haney asked Clements and Tammy Clark(“Clark”), the only other female employee in the Technical Department besides Clements and Rohrer, to write down what they knew about Rohrer. Clark complied with the request, while Clements refused. In August of 1998, Rohrer quit and later filed suit against NAS for sexual harassment. When Anil Yadav (“Yadav”), Haney’s supervisor, was investigating Rohrer’s complaints against Haney, he questioned the lab technicians, including Clements. His notes indicate that only one employee, Clements, had any complaints about Haney’s behavior, and that Clements did not like the way that Haney was treating Rohrer. Clements testified that she told both Yadav and Susan Poling (“Poling”), a Human Resources Department employee, that she did not like the way Haney was treating Rohrer. At some point Haney found out that Clements thought his behavior towards Rohrer was unfair.

Beginning on Aug. 1,1998, NAS adopted a new time and attendance policy. Under this new policy, employees were assessed points for being tardy or absent. If an employee accumulated 105 points within a year, this could be considered grounds for termination. Around Aug. 5, 1998, Haney called Clements into his office. They discussed Rohrer and then he told Clements that he was going to have a special attendance policy for her and would not allow her to make up time or use her vacation days on a call-in basis when she was sick. Generally, Technical Lab employees were permitted to make up time when they were late or absent, and were sometimes permitted to take paid vacation days when they were sick. By taking a vacation day instead of a sick day, an employee avoided being assessed points. When Clements told Haney that she was going to complain to Poling, he became angry and threatened her that “you do not want to cross me.” Haney testified that he did not recall the details of the incident.

Clements complained to Poling and Ya-dav about the incident. Poling instructed *708 her to put her complaints in writing, which she did. Yadav’s investigation of Clements’s complaints about Haney’s treatment of her resulted in his September 24, 1998 memorandum to Poling. In this memorandum Yadav lists Clements’s complaints and addressed each one in turn. With regard to Clements complaints about the special attendance policy, he states that Haney’s explanation for such policy was Clements’s past attendance problems and that any technician who abused the privilege of being able to make up hours would be subject to the same policy. Yadav stated that allowing an employee to make up hours would continue to be at the discretion of the supervisor. As for Clements’s complaints that Haney did not show her respect and was insulting, Yadav’s memo states that he spoke to other technicians about Haney’s attitude, and they all felt that Haney treated them with respect and listened to their ideas. He states that he counseled Haney to be more careful with his words and his tone. Clements also complained that Haney discussed too many personal issues with her. Yadav reported that Haney agreed not discuss personal issues with her in the future. Yadav’s conclusion regarding the dispute was that Clements did not have any problems with Haney until he began to question her regarding her attendance record, but that since then, she has been very critical of his supervision. He states that both Clements and Haney agreed to treat each other in a more professional manner.

During discovery, Haney produced notes in which he had analyzed the impact the new attendance policy would have had on Clements had it gone into effect at the first of the year. He added up the number of points which she would have received and concluded that between January 1998 and August 1998, she would have accumulated 135 points.

Haney testified that he never implemented the special policy toward Clements, and that there were times after August 1998 that he permitted Clements to make up missed time. Clements testified that Yadav told her that there would not be separate attendance policies, but that she never tested it.

Between August 1998 and May 27, 1999, Clements accumulated 95 points under the new time and attendance policy. Under the new policy, employees received five points for being late, ten points for being absent with an excuse and if an employee was absent without an excuse, the supervisor had the discretion to assess either ten or fifteen points. If an employee accumulated 105 points, this would be grounds for termination.

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Bluebook (online)
277 F. Supp. 2d 705, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25362, 2001 WL 34131166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clements-v-north-american-stainless-kyed-2001.