CenturyLink Cleared in Ex-Employee’s Job Retaliation Case

A contract worker can’t show CenturyLink terminated his assignment because a manager held a “grudge” against him based on his prior dealings with the telecommunications giant, the Eighth Circuit ruled March 22.

The company fired Walter Engelhardt from the contract assignment in August 2015, after less than two weeks, for alleged low productivity. That was the same reason CenturyLink gave for discharging him in 2008, when he was a full-time employee with the company, the court said.

Tim Buchholz, CenturyLink’s operations director, was involved in both decisions. But Engelhardt was unable to prove Buchholz’s alleged retaliatory motive drove the August ...