JURY TRIAL CLEARS M&W PACKAGING

A jury in federal court took only about a half hour on Tuesday to find M & W Packaging not guilty of gender discrimination.

The two-day trial made the second time that the case was in court. The first time, Dene Drury's complaint against M & W Packaging was heard in October, Judge E. Richard Webber declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision following almost five hours of discussion.

Drury, of Cape Girardeau, had originally filed her discrimination complaint after she was fired from M & W Packaging in June 1998.

In her lawsuit, Drury had alleged that other packaging employees who had taken advantage of the federal Family Medical Leave Act, using more than the 12 weeks allowed for health reasons, were treated differently.

Drury had been absent from work for 19 weeks.

Randy Rellergert, who had worked in the same department as Drury, left his job August 1997 to have surgery. He did not return until May 1998.

Although Rellergert gave no date when he would return to work, this did not create any problems, said Donna Wikel, who has worked in M & W Packaging's human resources department since 1990. Wikel told the court that employees were being encouraged to take voluntary leave beginning in June 1997. At that time the company had experienced a $3 million loss in monthly business and had to lay off 51 full-time employees.

Also, Rellergert had made payments regularly on his insurance plan during his absence, which Drury had failed to do, said Diane Bowman, director of human resources for M & W Packaging.

Another employee, Ken Cassout, had taken a leave from work for more than 12 weeks, and was fired. However, he was made eligible for rehire based on passing a physical, and due to his superior work skills, Bowman said. He has never been rehired, she said.

Carla Holste, Drury's attorney, pointed out several instances to the jury how her client attempted to keep M & W Packaging aware of her work status. Three calls were noted at the end of May 1998 when Drury asked about how much she needed to pay for insurance benefits, scheduling of her doctor's appointment for a post-partum examination, and rescheduling of the appointment.

She had planned to come back to work on June 11, but a doctor had told her the day before that her two-month old son was dehydrated and required close observation for 24 to 48 hours.

Bowman acknowledged that Drury had followed procedure in notifying human resources about her absence on June 11. She had called and left a message with an office answering machine and tried to reach her supervisor at home.

But the reasons why Drury was fired had to do with her behavior throughout her extended absence, said Douglas Richmond, attorney for M & W Packaging.

"Never have we had an employee who showed so little effort to cooperate on FMLA leave," he told the jurors.