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Pulcino v. Federal Express Corp.3/1/1999
"'No JCATS, no three-month review, Union Aff'." Pulcino believes that she did not get a courier position because of her prior affiliation with the union, and points out that this incident occurred contemporaneously with the National Mediation Board's October 19, 1992 finding that high-level FedEx executives had unlawfully interfered with FedEx pilots' vote for union representation. Pulcino and other FAs claim that anti-union sentiments were rampant at FedEx at this time.
In late October 1992, shortly after she began work as a handler, Pulcino suffered a lower lumbar strain. When she provided Bailey with a medical note requesting light duty, Bailey replied that she should not come back to work until she had a full release because FedEx did not offer light-duty positions for part-time workers. When Pulcino presented a note a few weeks later informing Bailey that she was still being treated for her sprain, Bailey directed her to see Dr. Grauke, who immediately gave her a full release to resume the handler job. Pulcino claims that although her injury was still causing her pain, her supervisors ignored her repeated requests for a safety belt to protect her back.
On December 18, 1992, Pulcino strained her rib muscles when she slammed the shrink-wrapping device into her chest. She left work and returned to Grauke, who put her in a rib belt and sent her back to work with a note requesting light duty. Later that day, Pulcino fell over a pallet jack that someone had left behind her and broke her foot. She claims that she was unable to get up, and that no one offered her assistance until a co-worker put her on a pallet jack and pushed her to her car so that she could drive herself to the doctor. Grauke put her leg in a cast and released her for light duty the following Monday. Bailey did not alter her workload. Days later, Bailey gave Pulcino a less than satisfactory job performance review, which Pulcino feared would preclude her from moving out of the handler job. And four weeks later, Pulcino was told to report to a manager, who told her that because FedEx had no light-duty policy, he was sending her home.
On April 28, 1993, Rick Birchett, the Bothell station manager, requested permission to fill Pulcino's job, stating that he wanted her replacement to do "sort/shuttle" work. Although Birchett's summary Judgement declaration indicated that he understood Pulcino did not intend to return, he later testified that he knew "the doctor was expected to return her . . . ." A few days later, Pulcino presented her full medical release. Although Birchett had just received permission to assign someone to the sort/shuttle work, he told her that the only available job was her handler position at the Microsoft dock. Birchett claims he said this because the duties at the Microsoft dock were lighter than any of the other positions he supervised. Pulcino said she felt unable to return to the Microsoft dock because of the physical and mental trauma she had experienced there, so Birchett requested that Pulcino turn in her I.D. and report to a leave of absence ("LOA") manager. Pulcino submitted a medical note to her LOA manager, Kim Woods, that stated she was authorized to return to full duty at work, but that "it would seem prudent . . . to provide her with a work assignment that does not involve extremely heavy physical demands." The note clarified that this recommendation was "on the basis of her general body habitus rather than any physical defect."
Pulcino did not find another job at FedEx within her 90-day LOA period. FedEx claims this was because she failed to submit job change applications and neglected to keep in touch with Woods when she was in California training for a job with another com
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