2201 E. Chapman Avenue
Fullerton, CA 92831
A former employee was laid off from an aerospace company due to a downturn in workload. At the time, there were three job classification levels for her position: level one was an entry level job and did not require a college degree, level two required a college degree and work experience, and level three required an advanced degree and many years of service. The responsibilities and knowledge of the intricacies of military contract compliance increased dramatically as the levels rose. The level one position was essentially clerical, level three was a very involved and demanding position.
The plaintiff was laid off from a level one position, and left the industry. While she was not working for the company, she took no classes and performed no work that related to the company work.
When there was an opening for a level three position, she applied, but did not get the position. A white male who was performing a similar job in a different part of the company was moved into the position. The lawsuit followed.
The former employee sued for discrimination, claiming that she was not hired because she is Hispanic, while the person hired for the job was a white male.
Plaintiff made allegations of racially-based decision making on the part of a particular manager. She identified a witness, a lower level manager, who claimed to have kept a journal of racial comments and other improper actions by the decision-maker.
Although the adverse witness was undoubtedly going to pose a problem in front of a jury, we set to work learning everything about the manager in question and the positions that are relevant to the decision as to who to hire.
We learned that the manager was well liked, and had mentored several Hispanic workers who were highly supportive of him and were adamant that he was a good manager and would not have bothered to help them if he was racist, as there was no company requirement that he mentor anyone.
We also learned that the three levels of the position were very specifically defined in terms of education and ability of the person holding the position. The entry level position was clerical, while the level three position required extensive knowledge of the operative contracts, compliance with the contracts, and the complex mechanism to change or modify portions of the contract.
We learned that the plaintiff was barely capable of performing the clerical work, and often had to ask for help in the simplest of tasks. In addition, she was offered any type of training at company expense when she was laid off, at company expense. She chose pastry chef lessons.
When she returned four years later, she had no additional aerospace experience or training, and had taken no formal classes of any type.
She was patently unqualified for the third level position. She lacked the associated degree needed to perform the level two work, or any combination of advanced degree and or related experience to perform the level three work.
The white male who was “hired” was performing the identical job in another department, and had both a four year degree and a thirty year continuous experience doing the job.
The matter did not settle prior to trial. Plaintiff’s attorneys placed an extreme value on the matter because of the “journal”, and were counting on inflaming the jury. They disregarded the fact that plaintiff was patently unqualified for the position.
At trial, we were able to successfully exclude the expert hired by plaintiff, who planned to testify that plaintiff was qualified for the position she sought because that expert had never placed any candidate in any aerospace position. We also excluded the journal, although the manager was permitted to testify that the hiring manager made racially insensitive remarks.
The jury awarded plaintiff approximately one year’s salary at the position, and did not attempt to punish the company or the manager for the decision. The award was far less than plaintiff had demanded to settle the matter prior to trial.