Mahran v. Advocate Health & Hosps. Corp.

MOHAMMED MAHRAN, Plaintiff, v. ADVOCATE HEALTH AND HOSPITALS CORPORATION,an Illinois not-for-profit Corporation, and ADVOCATE CHRIST MEDICAL CENTER,an Illinois not-for-profit Corporation, Defendants.

No. 17 C 5730

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

February 26, 2019

Judge Sara L. Ellis

OPINION AND ORDER

After his alleged failure to comply with a performance improvement plan led to his termination, Plaintiff Mohammed Mahran, an Egyptian Muslim, filed this employment discrimination suit against Defendants Advocate Health and Hospitals Corporation ("Advocate Health") and Advocate Christ Medical Center ("Advocate Christ").¹ Mahran brings the following claims: (1) discrimination based on religion and national origin under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000 et seq. and the Illinois Human Rights Act ("IHRA"), 775 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/1-101 et seq. (Counts I, II, IV, V, VII); (2) retaliation in violation of Title VII and the IHRA (Counts III and VIII); (3) denial of overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. (Count V); (4) hostile work environment and discriminatory harassment based on race and/or national origin in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Count VI); and (5) retaliatory discharge under Illinois common law (Count IX). After discovery, Advocate filed a motion for summary judgment on Mahran's claims, which the Court grants with respect to those claims addressed in the parties' briefing. Mahran has not created a genuine issue of fact as to whether Advocate committed the actionable adverse employment actions of which Mahran complains because of his race, national origin, or religion. Mahran also cannot prevail on his hostile work environment claims because a reasonable factfinder could not find Advocate subjected him to an objectively offensive work environment. The IHRA preempts Mahran's common law retaliatory discharge claim, and his Title VII and IHRA retaliation claims fail for lack of a causal connection between the protected activity and the actionable adverse actions. Finally, Mahran cannot pursue his FLSA overtime claims because he qualifies as an exempt employee under the FLSA.

BACKGROUND²

I. Mahran's Background

Mahran obtained his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Cairo University in Egypt in 1997 and a master of business administration from Leicester University in the United Kingdom in 2004. Mahran worked as a hospital pharmacist at Maadi Hospital in Cairo, Egypt from 1997 to 1998. He then held jobs as a medical representative and marketing manager for Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer from approximately 1998 to 2011. Having moved to Illinois, Mahran sought clinical experience at Advocate in February 2012 to fulfill the requirements of becoming a licensed pharmacist in Illinois. Rolla Sweis, Advocate Christ's pharmacy director who is Jordanian Orthodox, interviewed Mahran and submitted a sponsorship application to the Illinois State Board of Pharmacy. But the Board approved a sponsorship application from Naperville Pharmacy instead. Mahran worked at Naperville Pharmacy first as an intern, and, once he obtained his Illinois pharmacy license in 2013, as a pharmacist. Through an agency, he then obtained positions with the Cook County Health and Hospitals System and MS Pharmacy.

II. Mahran's Employment at Advocate

On April 10, 2013, Mahran contacted to Sweis to apply for a pharmacist position at Advocate. Sweis encouraged Mahran to apply online, indicating that Advocate had open positions for registry pharmacists, who worked as needed, and should have full-time positions in the fall. Mahran applied and interviewed with several individuals, including Judith Brown-Scott, Advocate Christ's pharmacy manager and an African American Christian. Brown-Scott supported hiring Mahran based on his industry experience and practice in Egypt, and Advocate hired Mahran as a registry pharmacist, effective November 18, 2013. Mahran reported to Brown-Scott. Both Sweis and Brown-Scott knew that Mahran was an Egyptian Muslim.

Advocate Christ's pharmacy department includes approximately 150 to 160 pharmacists and technicians. Sweis estimated that about 80% of the pharmacy staff is diverse, with about 90% of that diverse group Middle Eastern and between thirty and forty-five Muslims. At the time of Mahran's employment, Branka Milicev, who is Yugoslavian Orthodox, was the clinical manager of the department, and Chris Boyle, a caucasian Christian, was the evening supervisor. Mahran knew Milicev was from Serbia and associated her with the genocide of Muslims in that country. Boyle could not discipline, hire, or fire employees, but Mahran did not have direct knowledge of this.

In connection with his hire, Mahran acknowledged receipt of Advocate's Associate Handbook in October 2013. The handbook provides that Advocate employees are to "treat all people with respect, integrity and dignity." Doc. 35 ¶ 16. It also includes information about Advocate's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, general and sexual harassment policy, non- retaliation policy, and reporting mechanisms. Advocate's conflict resolution program encouraged employees to engage in detailed discussions with other employees with whom a conflict existed, while also providing different avenues for resolution of conflicts, including focused approaches led by the human resources department, arbitration, and mediation.

Advocate has a corrective action policy that provides for progressive discipline, including level 1 and 2 warnings and a level 3 final warning. Advocate could omit disciplinary steps depending on the seriousness and details of the infraction. Additionally, a supervisor could give employees a performance deficiency notice ("PDN"), which identifies the employee's specific deficiencies, a corrective action plan, a time frame for demonstrating acceptable performance, and the consequences of failing to do so.

Advocate hired Mahran for an initial ninety-day probationary period. His job required him to make certain decisions on his own, which Mahran testified encompassed verifying orders, including after a technician prepared them, providing recommendations to nurses and doctors, and adjusting medications for dose and frequency based on a patient's lab work. Additionally, pharmacists at Advocate considered the appropriateness, safety, and efficacy of patients' drug therapy regimens and provided clinical expertise on pharmaceutical therapy. Initially, Mahran worked both day and night shifts and rotated between the central pharmacy and hospital floors.

Mahran received approximately six weeks of training. Milicev gave him reference material during his initial probationary period and also provided him with additional coaching and mentoring on more complicated orders. Mahran had only three hours of training with the intensive care unit ("ICU") clinical coordinators. Although he asked for two weeks of ICU training, as a non-ICU pharmacist, he did not require such specialized training. During his training, two fellow pharmacists refused to answer Mahran's questions about policies and procedures, and one shouted at him. Mahran reported these interactions to management as discriminatory in April 2014. Management spoke with these pharmacists and coached them to be more helpful and watch their tone.

On February 24, 2014, upon the conclusion of his probationary period, Brown-Scott evaluated Mahran, giving him an overall rating of meets expectations and the same in seven of eight categories. With respect to job accountabilities, Brown-Scott found that Mahran approached expectations, noting that he needed to develop his inpatient pharmacist skills to better oversee drug therapy at the hospital and that he had knowledge deficits arising from his limited exposure to inpatient staffing. She wanted Mahran to take an active role in learning more about the care of critically ill patients and those with a wide range of illnesses.

During Mahran's tenure as a registry pharmacist, Sweis hired two non-Muslim pharmacists, Barbara Bukowski and Dragica Radic, to full-time pharmacist positions on March 24, 2014. Bukowski and Radic had not worked registry at Advocate before being hired full-time, but Advocate did not require such a sequence. Bukowski had hospital experience from her internships and residency, and Radic worked in a hospital setting before Advocate hired her. Although Mahran believes Milicev favored Radic because they were both Serbian and somehow related, Milicev did not have any involvement in the hiring process. And Radic eventually lost her job for failure to comply with a PDN regarding behavioral and performance issues raised by Milicev's staff.

Mahran complained to Sweis about Bukowski's and Radic's hiring, telling her he would go to human resources and complain of racial discrimination if he did not get hired to a full-time position. Two days later, on April 20, 2014, Advocate hired Mahran as a full-time pharmacist. Mahran then wrote to both Sweis and Milicev, expressing his thanks for their support and his appreciation for having them as his managers.

In his August 23, 2014 review, Brown-Scott rated Mahran as meeting expectations while noting that he should "have open and candid communications and handle difficult conversations with the appropriate party when necessary." Doc. 35 ¶ 38. After he received praise from Sweis on a presentation he gave in October 2014, Mahran thanked Sweis, Milicev, and Brown-Scott for their support and noted how they represented the meaning of "one for all&all for one." Doc. 35 ¶ 39. Mahran was disappointed in his April 2015 performance review, which found he met expectations, because he believed he should have received an overall rating of exceeds expectations.

On August 13, 2015, Mahran received a level 1 warning from Brown-Scott for verifying a discontinued order for a lung transplant patient without verifying another order for the...