Beedemariam Kassaw v. Wal-Mart Corporation

What the court wrote

Verbatim from the court's document (public domain). Ellipses mark omitted text; nothing is paraphrased.

Under the policy, each instance of employee misconduct is assigned a level of accountability, up to and including termination, based on the severity of the conduct and/or where the employee is in the progressive discipline process. (Id.). The first level of accountability is a yellow disciplinary action (“DA1-Yellow”), followed by an orange disciplinary action (“DA2- Orange”), and the final level of accountability before termination is a red disciplinary action (“DA3-Red”). (Id. at ¶ 23). The policy provides that an employee “may receive only one of each level of disciplinary action in any 12-month period” and “levels may be skipped based on the circumstances.” (Id. at ¶ 24). If an employee achieves a DA3-Red and an additional instance of misconduct warranting disciplinary action occurs, the next level of accountability is termination. (Id. at ¶ 25; see also Dkt. 54-3 at ¶¶ 18-24). Plaintiff was aware of this policy. (Dkt. 54-1 at ¶ 26). In the seven months leading up to his termination, Plaintiff achieved the highest- level disciplinary action. (Id. at ¶ 29). On March 7, 2020, assistant manager David Shepard gave Plaintiff a DA1-Yellow, for excessive meal violations over a