IRA Method

Tanya Hayworth was employed as a training and curriculum specialist at the child development center ("CDC") owned by and operated on the campus of a large corporation. The CDC provided childcare for the corporation's employees. From March 2009 to January 2011, Hayworth's supervisor was Shelly Foster. When Foster was transferred in January 2011, Candice Conroy became Hayworth's supervisor. Over the next four months, until her termination in July 2011, Hayworth alleges that Conroy subjected her to discrimination and harassment, culminating in Hayworth filing an informal complaint on April 1, 2011. Conroy was notified of the informal complaint on April 15.

On April 21, 2011, Conroy added a memorandum regarding non-disciplinary counseling of Hayworth to Hayworth's personnel file.Conroy had scheduled a management meeting that Hayworth was required to attend. Hayworth emailed Conroy before the meeting, stating that she would not attend because she did not have union representation. Conroy responded that Hayworth was not entitled to union representation because she was not a bargaining unit member, and in any event, she could not bring a union representative to the meeting because sensitive and private information would be shared. Despite this instruction, Hayworth arrived twenty minutes late to the meeting with an unauthorized individual, presumably a union representative. Conroy determined that the appropriate course of action was to provide "non-disciplinary counseling" and note the incident in Hayworth's personnel file.

Subsequently, in her performance review, Conroy gave Hayworth an "unacceptable" job performance rating despite the fact that, according to Hayworth, she had 2.5 years of "stellar" work history.Conroy rated Hayworth's performance "unacceptable," in part because Hayworth never obtained CPR or Pediatric First Aid certifications, and she allowed these certifications to lapse for several CDC employees. Additionally, Hayworth was four months behind in scheduling and coordinating staff developmental training modules in compliance with CDC requirements, with no plan to remedy the issue. According to Conroy, either of these problemsthe lack of CPR/First Aid certifications or the lack of staff trainingscould have resulted in a complete CDC shutdown.

On April 29, 2011, Conroy proposed that Hayworth receive a one-day suspension from work due to "inappropriate behavior," "failure to follow a directive," and "failure to follow proper leave procedures."

On July 20, 2011, Hayworth was terminated.

Hayworth filed a formal EEOC complaint and after the EEOC issued a final decision on the complaint, Hayworth sued her former employer.Citation omitted.

Discuss Hayworth's claim(s) and the employer's response(s).