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Palmer v. GTE California Incorporated1/30/2002
t he had thought she would go a long way in the company, but she happened to date the wrong person. The comment apparently related to her former boyfriend who had worked for GTE but was fired in 1982.
Palmer reviewed her personnel file in June 1994 and discovered a safety reminder that she had not been informed of. She requested a meeting with Lee, who had placed the item in her file, and they met in a conference room. When she told him that she was never advised of the safety reminder as required by company policy, he offered to cross it out. She asked him to remove it entirely and requested union representation in the meeting. He told her not to call the union. She called out loudly for Jordan, the head supervisor, to enter the conference room and then attempted to telephone the union.
Lee raised his voice making it difficult for her to hear the telephone, and he walked to the door. She told him that she wanted to leave the room and walked toward the door where he was standing. Holding the door knob with his hand and bracing his foot against the door, he told her in a raised voice that she was not going anywhere until he was through with her. He then insisted that he had counseled her regarding the safety reminder and she denied it, asked to leave the conference room, and said that she would start to pound on the door if he did not allow her to leave. She then began to pound on the door with her fists and screamed "Let me out of here" for what seemed like ten minutes but probably was closer to five minutes, according to Palmer, until another supervisor forced the door open from the outside. Jordan, who was at standing at his desk nearby, commented to her, "Well, he didn't lock it, did he?" Palmer then called the union.
Palmer began a leave of absence two days later due to a broken arm and returned to work in August 1994. She filed a grievance concerning the conference room incident at that time. She did not receive prior notice of the meeting that was scheduled to discuss the grievance and learned of the meeting while she was away from work receiving physical therapy. A co-worker picked her up and drove her to the meeting, but she arrived late. Ast and Lee were waiting for her, and Ast berated her for arriving late and told her that she must reschedule the meeting.
Palmer walked away toward a telephone. Ast followed her and directed her to go to another job site, continuing to speak in a loud voice with an angry tone. He told her that she could call the union later. She explained that she was calling her co-worker who had driven her from physical therapy who had her purse and keys. Ast told her to put the phone down. She walked toward the area where keys to the company vehicles were kept and Ast followed stating in a loud voice that he was her supervisor and demanded her respect. She retrieved the company keys as Ast followed her, still yelling. She then stated that she was ill, was still on vacation time, and could not lift manhole covers because of her arm, and asked him to call Jordan.
Palmer, Ast, and Jordan then met in the hallway outside the conference room. She stood with her back to the wall while Ast yelled at her and demanded respect. She explained to Jordan that her co-worker had her purse, driver's license, and keys. She felt beleaguered and humiliated and, apparently in exasperation, asked them to suspend her. They then left her alone.
The rescheduled grievance meeting took place in August 1994. Ast suspended her for five days at that time for making him "look like an idiot," he stated.
Palmer also experienced other instances of alleged mistreatment. Ast failed to notify her that she had been invited to a banquet
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