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[W] Webb Wheel Products12/30/2004
visor, Byron Hale. Hanvey says that the first thing Hale said to him was that if he caught Hanvey without his back brace, he would "fire ass." Hanvey was assigned to work in what the parties refer to as the "woodpile." Working in the woodpile involves stacking and repairing the wooden pallets Webb Wheel uses to ship its products. Webb Wheel personnel testified that an assignment to the woodpile is customarily temporary and that such an assignment is used to keep an employee on the job when there is no other work for the employee to do. Hanvey stated that the woodpile job is more physically demanding than the drill-press operator job, but Webb Wheel employees stated that there was no work for an additional drill-press operator at the time that Hanvey returned to work.
Hanvey testified that, the following day, after he had worked approximately three hours stacking pallets, his back started hurting and he asked Hale if he could get some Tylenol brand acetaminophen for his back. Hale told Hanvey to sit down and that he would return shortly. Approximately two hours later, Hale returned with Hill. Hill and Hanvey then went to Hill's office, where Hanvey testified, Hill stated, "we're going to have to let you go because of your back." (Emphasis added.) Hill denies making that statement, insisting, as is noted below, that Hanvey was merely "laid off." Hanvey also testified that no one told him that he was being laid off, that the layoff was temporary, or that he later could be recalled to work. Hanvey says that after the meeting he was escorted to retrieve his toolbox and then escorted to the door and watched until he got into his vehicle and left the premises.
During this meeting, Hill completed a form that Webb Wheel refers to as an "exit report," and both Hanvey and Hill signed the form. The form states, in part: "Reason for Termination: Dismissed _____ Lay Off _____ Quit _____." The blank beside "Lay Off" on the form signed by Hanvey is checked. The form contains a space labeled "Employee Statement," but that space on Hanvey's exit report is blank except for his signature. In the space labeled "Supervisor Comments," Hill wrote: "Josh was laid off due to lack of work. He made the statement to me that he expected to be laid off the day he came back." In the space labeled "Superintendent Comments," Dan Allen, the production superintendent of Cullman Plant #1, wrote "Reduction in work force." In the space labeled "Manager Comments," David Link, Webb Wheel's plant manager, wrote "Questionable recall." Hill testified at trial that Hanvey was laid off because of an ongoing reduction in workforce then underway at Webb Wheel. Hill also said that he was not the person who made the decision to lay Hanvey off. Hanvey says he was not given a copy of the exit report when he signed it and he was later not permitted to obtain a copy. As previously noted, he did sign the form, but the parties dispute how much of the form was completed when Hanvey signed it.
On October 4, 2000, two weeks before Hanvey returned to work, Webb Wheel initiated a three-phase reduction in workforce made necessary, it says, by a downturn in business that ultimately resulted in 37 employees, including Hanvey, at Plant #1 being laid off. Exit reports like the one completed for Hanvey were completed for all 37 laid-off employees. Although Link had the primary responsibility for deciding which employees were to be laid off, the record reflects that Allen had input into the decision and that supervisors were sometimes consulted as well. Management employees testified that the layoffs were conducted pursuant to Webb Wheel's written workforce-reduction policy, which states, in pertinent part:
"In the event that a workforc
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