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Do Anonymous Letters Prove a Homosexual Manager Was Discriminated?

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Was a 2008 company-wide economic restructuring at United Airlines the reason that a manager was furloughed (placed on temporary unpaid leave)? Or was that a mere pretext so that the company could remove a homosexual employee from a managerial position?

The man began working in customer service in 1999 and was transferred to an operating manager position at a station in Denver, CO. Due to financial strain in 2008, a national reduction-in-force became a necessity. This entailed five of the 18 Denver managers at the complainant’s level to be furloughed. Before the decision was made, four of those managers left voluntarily. As a result, only one potentially-furloughed manager remained, and the company chose the man in question, as he had received the lowest ranking performance review.

His ensuing lawsuit asserted a violation of the Civil Rights Act with discrimination and retaliation on the basis of sex and sexual orientation. He also made state-law claims citing similar violations. His claims included two letters which the plaintiff believed were discriminatory. The first, in December 2007, was an anonymous typewritten note found in the employee break room. It complained that “a lot of managers and supervisors new and old were homosexuals” and explicitly named the plaintiff and others. An investigation was held, and the manager of the Denver facility submitted a response to employees, describing the letter as “malicious and inappropriate” and a clear violation of company policy. The author of the letter was never found.

The second anonymous letter, in April of the following year, was distributed to management – a copy was slipped under the plaintiff’s door. It mentioned a lack of respect among agents and stated that a person’s sexual preference should be of no consequence to how said person performs his/her job. The author professed to be a customer service rep and ended the letter by insisting that it was “written with respect to all involved.” There was no investigation, as management did not believe the letter was derogatory.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of United Airlines. Appellate judges concurred with the ruling that the letters did not support the plaintiff’s retaliation claim. The first letter was derogatory, but management investigated the incident and criticized the note’s content. The second letter was much more general and neither specified any employee nor complained of favoritism or hostility based on sex or a person’s orientation. Perhaps more significantly, the plaintiff could not substantiate a link between the letters and the furlough.

He also complained of gender discrimination, asserting that females received preferential treatment over males. But, of all 13 managers retained after the furlough, only one was a woman. Likewise, both his supervisor and his replacement were male, and no managers making the furlough decision made remarks that could be construed as discriminatory.

The plaintiff’s state-law claims were also dismissed, as he could not show that his being furloughed was based on either his gender or the fact that he was a homosexual. The appeals court affirmed the district court’s ruling.

Do Anonymous Letters Prove a Homosexual Manager Was Discriminated? by
Authored by: Harrison Barnes