United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division
OPINION AND ORDER
SARA
L. ELLIS UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.
Plaintiff
Patrick O'Dell suffered an injury while working for
Defendant Citgo Petroleum Corporation (“Citgo”),
for which he filed a workers' compensation claim. After
an extended absence, Citgo terminated O'Dell's
employment pursuant to a loss of seniority provision in the
collective bargaining agreement. O'Dell filed this suit
against Citgo, alleging a common law claim that Citgo
wrongfully terminated him in retaliation for filing a
workers' compensation claim. Citgo now moves for summary
judgment. Although the Court does not find that § 301 of
the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”), 29
U.S.C. § 185, preempts O'Dell's retaliatory
discharge claim, the Court nonetheless finds summary judgment
appropriate for Citgo because the evidence would not allow a
reasonable jury to conclude that Citgo terminated O'Dell
because he filed a workers' compensation claim.
BACKGROUND[1]
I.
O'Dell's Employment with Citgo
Citgo,
a refiner, transporter, and marketer of transportation fuels,
lubricants, petrochemicals, and other products, operates a
refinery in Lemont, Illinois. O'Dell began working at
Citgo's Lemont refinery on January 10, 2005. On April 1,
2013, Citgo promoted O'Dell to an Operations Technician A
position on the Number One Cat Reformer. In this position,
O'Dell engaged in physically intense and safety sensitive
work to apply heat and pressure to crude oil. Citgo
classifies this position as having heavy physical demands and
requiring frequent walking, standing, pushing, pulling, and
lifting or carrying of objects between fifty and 100 pounds.
Operations Technicians must validate the required level of
competence to perform their work. This validation requires
Operations Technicians to demonstrate understanding of the
position and duties and may include a physical component.
Operations Technicians also have to complete a series of
computer-based training programs called PRISM every year.
II.
Policies Applicable to O'Dell's Employment
Citgo
has a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”)
with Lemont Local No. 7-517 of the United Steel, Paper and
Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial
and Service Workers International Union (the
“Union”), which governed O'Dell's
employment.[2] In Article IV, Section 7, titled
“Loss of Seniority, ” the CBA provides:
Plant seniority will be broken and lost in the following
cases: . . .
D. Any absence from work for more than eighteen (18)
consecutive months. Time missed while on Family Medical
Leave, Funeral Leave, and Jury Duty will not be counted
toward the eighteen (18) month period.
Doc. 65-3 at 10; Doc. 65-4 at 10. The Loss of Seniority
provision does not specify whether a return to work on
transitional duty-also known as restricted, modified, or
light duty-amounts to an absence or does not get counted in
the eighteen-month period. Additionally, in Article IX,
Section 10, the CBA provides that Citgo may suspend,
discharge, or otherwise discipline employees only for just
cause.
The CBA
includes a mandatory grievance and arbitration process for
“differences . . . as to the meaning and application of
the provisions of” the CBA. Doc. 65-4 at 22. The CBA
outlines the steps in the grievance process as follows: (1)
discussing the grievance with the employee's supervisor
and, if not settled, reducing the grievance to writing; (2)
having the grievance reviewed and potentially settled by the
workmen's committee and the department head; (3) if not
settled, appealing the decision of the department head to the
Lemont refinery's vice president; and (4) referring any
grievance not satisfactorily resolved under Step Three to
arbitration. To the extent the grievance procedure resulted
in a finding that Citgo unjustly discharged an employee,
Citgo agreed to reinstate that employee without loss of
seniority and with reimbursement for lost compensation.
Citgo
has a transitional duty assignments policy intended to
“assist employees whose recovery from injuries and/or
illnesses may be enhanced by an early return to a working
environment.” Doc. 65-1 at 2. It provides for
transitional duty subject to the determination of the
employee's treating physician, Citgo's health
services department, and the employee's supervisor and
the “availability of safe, meaningful, and productive
job duties (as determined by management) that are within the
limits of the medical recommendations.” Id. In
order to qualify for transitional duty, the employee must
have a temporary disability, reflected in a medical
assessment that “indicate[s] a strong probability that
[the employee] will be fully recovered and be able to perform
the full scope of his/her regular work assignment, without
restrictions, in the near future.” Transitional duty
could last up to six months, with an initial transitional
duty assignment lasting up to four weeks, and subsequent
evaluations of the continued propriety of transitional duty
occurring every one to four weeks thereafter.
III.
O'Dell's Injury, Treatment, and Work
Restrictions
On
March 3, 2014, O'Dell claims to have injured his right
shoulder while moving a steam hose at work. Michael Siron, a
Citgo area manager and to whom O'Dell reported the
accident, had some concerns that the accident, as O'Dell
described it, could not have caused O'Dell's shoulder
injury. O'Dell began a leave of absence on March 4,
without a return to work date established. He filed a
workers' compensation claim on March 19, 2014. ESIS, an
independent third party that administers Citgo's
workers' compensation claims, handled O'Dell's
claim. The parties reached a settlement to pay
O'Dell's claim, with O'Dell and ESIS executing a
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