Can Employees Prove A Discriminatory Discharge Through Evidence Of Successful Job Performance?

During the past twenty years, our Marion County, Florida employment discrimination lawyers have litigated employment discrimination cases in Florida courts. Through their decades of experience representing employment discrimination victims, our Ocala, Florida employment discrimination attorneys know that unsatisfactory work performance is a reason frequently proffered by employers for terminating employees. In many cases, however, employees terminated due to an alleged deficient work performance have a history of successful job performance. The disparity between an employee’s history of successful job performance and an employer’s decision to fire the employee for unsatisfactory work performance raises the issue of whether discrimination was the real reason for the employee’s termination.

In the employment discrimination context, courts repeatedly declare that employees cannot prove a discriminatory discharge simply by showing that the employer’s decision was wrong, mistaken, misguided, or unfair. Instead, courts, such as the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Fuentes v. Perskie,  32 F.3d 759 (3d Cir. 1994), explain that the threshold issue in employment discrimination cases is whether “discriminatory animus motivated [the employer’s decision], not whether [the decision] was wise, shrewd, prudent, or competent.” Stated a slightly different way, employees must show that a discriminatory reason was the real reason for their termination to prove a discriminatory discharge case.

In this article, our Marion County, Florida employment discrimination lawyers explain how the recent decision in Brooks v. Randstad Technologies, LLC,Case No. 19-cv-04037 (E.D. Pa. March 24, 2022) illustrates that when unsatisfactory work performance is proffered as the reason for an employee’s termination, showing the employee had a history of successful job performance is evidence that discrimination was the real reason for the employee’s termination.

Discriminatory Discharge Lawsuit

In that case, a man named Brooks brought an employment discrimination lawsuit against his former employer, Randstad Technologies, LLC (Randstad), pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). Title VII makes it an unlawful discriminatory employment practice for employers to discriminate against employees because of race. Brooks, who is African-American, claims that he was fired because of his race in violation of Title VII.

Since 2011, Brooks was assigned to the role of Account Manager for Randstad’s Vanguard account. Randstad is an Information Technology company that provides recruiting for various staffing and solution services to clients. As part of its staffing services, Randstad contracts with clients who agree to pay a set amount for the position to be filled. Randstad fills the position and compensates the new hire with wages. As Account Manager for Vanguard, Brooks’ responsibilities included: meeting with client managers to understand staffing needs, screening the candidates, offering candidates to Vanguard, terminating placements Vanguard no longer needed, and attempting to expand Vanguard’s business with Randstad through use of Randstad’s resource program called “Solutions.”

In June 2017, Randstad removed Brooks from the Vanguard account after receiving complaints from Vanguard about Brooks’ performance on the account. In November 2017, Brooks was placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP). Brooks lodged an internal complaint with Randstad alleging that he was placed on the PIP due to racial discrimination. Because Brooks allegedly did not meet the expectations of the PIP, the PIP was continued by ninety days. In October 2018, Randstad placed Brooks on another PIP. Once again, Brooks lodged an internal complaint alleging that racially discriminatory animus was the real reason for the PIP. On November 13, 2018, Randstad terminated Brooks’ employment.

Top Performing Employee

Randstad claims the Brooks’ poor performance—specifically his failure to communicate with his supervisors effectively, to schedule client meetings or interviews, his lack of communication with Vanguard managers whose account Brooks was assigned to manage, and his refusal to contact clients about potential candidate placements—was the reason for his placement on multiple PIPs and his ultimate termination.

Brooks maintains that he “achieved unprecedented success” as an Account Manager. Brooks contends that he was the only Account Manager who generated a sizable Solution for Vanguard, qualified every year for membership in Randstad’s President’s Club nationwide rankings, and was a top-five performer for Randstad until he was fired. In fact, one of Brooks’ supervisors testified that Brooks was “Number 4” in sales for the entire company. Another supervisor of Brooks admitted that Brooks “brought in the highest solutions deal” he had seen to date. That same supervisor also admitted that Brooks was “supposed to having meetings, placements, staffing,” but Brooks did not “have to do that per se.”

Evidence Discrimination Is Real Reason

Randstad filed a motion with the trial court seeking dismissal of Brooks’ discriminatory discharge claim. In support of its motion for dismissal, Randstad maintained that the evidence established that Brooks was fired because of his poor job performance and not because of his race. The trial court denied Randstad’s motion for dismissal and ruled that Brooks had presented sufficient evidence to proceed to a jury trial on the issue of whether he was fired because of his race in violation of Title VII.

In denying Randstad’s motion for dismissal, the trial court focused on evidence of Brooks’ history of successful job performance. The trial court pointed out that Brooks “qualified to the President’s Club in 2018, and membership in the President’s Club was merit based and a metric of success at Randstad.” The trial court also noted that Brooks was “Number 4” on the list of Randstad’s top employees. Despite this history of successful job performance, the trial court observed, Brooks “was still terminated that same year.” Based on the “disparity between” Brooks’ past success and Randstad’s decision to fire Brooks for poor work performance, the trial court found that a reasonable jury could conclude that Brooks’ race was the “real reason” for his termination.

Marion County, FL Discrimination Lawyers

Based in Ocala, Florida and representing workers throughout Florida, our employment discrimination attorneys in Marion County, Florida have represented employment discrimination victims for more than two decades. If you have experienced workplace discrimination or have questions about your employee rights under federal employment discrimination law, please contact our office for a free consultation with our employment discrimination lawyers in Marion County, Florida. Our employee rights law firm takes employment discrimination cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that there are no attorney’s fees incurred unless there is a recovery and our attorney’s fees come solely from the monetary award that you recover.