How ConMed Complicated a Discrimination Case

The way ConMed fired territory manager Reza Yazdian means it still has a retaliation case on its hands, even though his discrimination claims remain dismissed.

Chris Newmarker

Who knew sharing a National Geographic article or giving employees free ham could cause so much trouble?

As innocuous as these actions might seem, they were enough for Reza Yazdian, a former territory manger around Cincinnati for Conmed's endoscope business, to claim discrimination as a first-generation Iranian American.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently ruled that a lower court was right to dismiss Yazdian's discrimination claims. But the way ConMed went about firing Yazdian in 2010 means that his case for retaliation deserves a jury trial, the court said. The retaliation case has been remanded back to district court.

The problem for ConMed is that human resources officials did not investigate Yazdian's claims of retaliation from his boss thoroughly enough. Company officials could not remember reading Yazdian's response to the company's written warning letter.

"ConMed could not have been fully informed about the circumstances surrounding Yazdian's termination if it did not even take the time to read Yazdian's response," Circuit Judge Karen Nelson Moore wrote in her opinion for the court.  

Also, Yazdian's manager Timothy Sweatt cited Yazdian's claims of discrimination as an example of insubordination, though other supposed comments such as calling Sweatt a "bad individual" were also cited.

"A jury could reasonably conclude that Yazdian's behavior was not so bad as to warrant termination because Yazdian consistently performed well, and his behavior became a problem only after Yazdian complained that Sweatt was creating a hostile work environment. A jury could also decide that Sweatt was monitoring Yazdian's behavior and that Yazdian's failure to improve was the actual reason for  the adverse employment action," Moore said.

"Because there are two reasonable interpretations, and because we must accept the version most favorable to Yazdian, which is sufficient evidence of pretext, summary judgment is not appropriate here."

The unfortunate irony for ConMed is that the examples Yazdian provided of supposed discrimination did not hold up in court. They included Sweatt sharing a National Geographic article about ancient Persia with Yazdian because he thought Yazdian might find it interesting because of his pride in his Iranian heritage. Sweatt also sent all his territory managers gift certificates to the Honey Baked Ham Store. He made a point of writing Yazdian: "Although I believe you have said you do eat pork, I would like to mention that if you have never shopped at this place, they have many other items--the turkey is quite good!"

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed and MPMN. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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