Sr., born 1964, was hired on June 20, 2002, as a casual pitcher at the Cheyenne Transfer Station Commercial Rear-Loader business line. Thompson became a regular employee on March 4, 2003, and states that he understood the proper procedure for reporting an anticipated absence.
Thompson was listed as a no-call/no-show on February 3, March 28, April 2, April 9, and June 7, 2004. Thompson received an Employee Corrective Notice on June 8, 2004, which he signed, warning him that he had reached his fifth attendance violation in the past six months and that further violations would result in termination. On July 30, 2004, Thompson called in to notify his supervisor that he would be late for his shift. Defendants noted that his call was received at 8:01 p.m. Defendantsterminated his employment for the sixth violation of the attendance policy, as set forth in the CBA. In his termination notice, Thompson stated that he called in at 7:58 p.m. and that he assumes that the discrepancy in time was because it took a few minutes for the tape to run out.
The EEOC asserts that Thompson's termination was pretext for age discrimination because younger employees with more attendance violations were not terminated. For example, the EEOC refers to the following three employees who were discussed with respect to Banks: casual employee Michael Jones, age 18 at the time, violated the attendance policy seven times during his four months of employment as a casual employee, casual employee Geraldine Lacy, born 1968, had eight no-call/no-show *1282 and tardies between April