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Federal courts grind up gender bias charges against sausage company
FRANK J. SAIBERT
Law Bulletin columnist
Published: September 26, 2017
Old Wisconsin Sausage Co., located in Sheboygan, Wis., hired Jamie Owens as its human resources manager in June 2011.
Owens previously had been a human resources manager at Lakeside Foods in Manitowoc, Wis.
A fellow named Matt Kobussen, who had worked for Lakeside when Owens was there, applied for a job at Old Wisconsin.
Owens, as the Old Wisconsin human resources manager, interviewed Kobussen for the job and was one of the people who eventually hired him at Old Wisconsin.
What Old Wisconsin did not know, and what Owens and Kobussen did not disclose to Old Wisconsin, was that the two were right in the middle of a six-year romantic relationship at the time of Kobussen’s Old Wisconsin hire.
Owens, in fact, had testified in a court proceeding that she had lived with Kobussen for years and had raised his son.
Following Kobussen’s Old Wisconsin hire, Old Wisconsin assigned Owens to supervisory authority over the retail store at which Kobussen worked, unknowingly placing Kobussen directly within Owens’ supervisory chain of command.
During November 2011, three Old Wisconsin employees complained to the plant manager that Owens and Kobussen were in a personal relationship that raised a clear conflict of interest.
When management questioned Owens, she vehemently denied any nonworking relationship with Kobussen and stated, “I’m not answering this, this is borderline sexual harassment.”
When management questioned Kobussen, he deflected the issue, telling the plant manager that he, Kobussen, does not ask the plant manager about his spousal relationships.
Old Wisconsin fired Owens but retained Kobussen.
The stated reasons for Owens’ termination appear to be a combination of her lying about her relationship with Kobussen and various work performance deficiencies, including her “rough” personality, poor reactions during crises and substandard leadership skills.
Old Wisconsin replaced Owens with a female.
Owens then sued Old Wisconsin in U.S. District Court for gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other torts.
The district court ultimately dismissed all of Owens’ claims on summary judgment and last month, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Owens v. Old Wisconsin Sausage Co. Inc., No. 16-3875 (Aug. 31, 2017).
The 7th Circuit, quoting its decision last year in Ortiz v. Werner Enterprises Inc., 834 F.3d 760, 765 (7th Cir. 2016), reminded all that the correct standard on summary judgment “is simply whether the evidence would permit a reasonable fact-finder to conclude that Owens’ sex caused the termination … ”
The district court appropriately applied the correct standard in dismissing Owens’ case, the 7th Circuit opined.
While Owens presented evidence of Old Wisconsin actions that she viewed as discriminatory, such as Owens being instructed to dress more professionally and receiving a smaller bonus than male workers, none of that evidence related to her firing, noted the court.
Also problematic, according to the 7th Circuit, was Owens’ reliance on the supposedly “sexist” questions Old Wisconsin asked of her regarding her personal relationship with Kobussen.
The record demonstrated that male managers at Old Wisconsin found to be in relationships with co-workers uniformly were interrogated by management about those relationships and how they might impact the workforce.
That Owens was in a direct supervisory role vis-a-vis Kobussen further differentiated her situation from that of one Old Wisconsin male manager who had been in a romantic relationship with a co-worker, wrote the court.
As for Old Wisconsin’s decision to retain Kobussen while firing Owens, the 7th Circuit noted that Kobussen was the subordinate while Owens, as a supervisor, was in a position to effect preferential treatment.
Old Wisconsin’s concern about this clear potential for a conflict of interest, the court wrote, was a “legitimate interest to an employer.”
Finally, the 7th Circuit easily dispatched Owens’ claims that Old Wisconsin somehow sexually harassed her in asking her questions about Kobussen and then retaliatorily fired her.
In the court’s view, Owens’ view that the questions constituted sexual harassment simply was not reasonable or based in good faith, under the circumstances.
Frank J. Saibert is a partner in the labor and employment practice at Nixon, Peabody LLP. He represents public- and private-sector employers nationwide in labor relations and employment matters. He is past president of the Chicago chapter of the National Human Resources Association and a former Lyons Township committeeman. He can be reached at fjsaibert@nixonpeabody.com.