Nos. 19-3489/20-1605 ___________________________

Rodolfo A. Quiles

Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Union Pacific Railroad Company, Incorporated

Defendant - Appellant

Rodney N. Doerr; Edward Adelman; Tracy Scott; Kathleen Hughes, individually

Defendants ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the District of Nebraska - Omaha ____________

Submitted: December 10, 2020 Filed: July 6, 2021 ____________ Before BENTON, ERICKSON, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ GRASZ, Circuit Judge.

Union Pacific Railroad Company, Inc. (“Union Pacific”) appeals the district court’s orders involving Rodolfo Quiles’s and Union Pacific’s motions for judgment as a matter of law and Quiles’s motion for attorney fees in this suit under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”). We reverse.

I. Background

In February 2014, Union Pacific hired Quiles to serve as general manager of safety analysis (“General Manager”). Union Pacific paid Quiles as a “D-band” employee, which, on a scale of A (lowest pay) through E (highest pay), was just below Union Pacific’s “E-band” executive-compensation level. As General Manager, Quiles reported directly to Union Pacific’s Assistant Vice President of Safety, Rodney Doerr, an executive. At the same time, Quiles served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Quiles left his job at Union Pacific for voluntary deployment with the Marine Corps in May 2015.

During his deployment, Union Pacific underwent a “reduction in force,” which impacted its safety department. Union Pacific’s reorganization eliminated all general manager titles and reclassified many general managers as directors. Union Pacific chose Greg Workman to lead the safety department. Workman had a prior working relationship with Edward Adelman, and Workman hired Adelman to join Union Pacific’s safety department. Adelman was hired to serve as the general director of safety analysis (“General Director”), and Adelman reported to Doerr, who remained an “E-band” employee. Quiles believed Adelman was hired to be his replacement.

Upon Quiles’s return from deployment, he went back to work at Union Pacific in October 2015. Quiles’s new assignment was a director of safety analysis role (“Director”). His compensation remained at the “D-band” level. He retained the same job benefits, worked on the same projects, and retained managerial duties over a direct report employee.

-2- Quiles, however, viewed his new role as a demotion. He claimed that his Director position had “less responsibility, visibility, opportunity and status” than did his previous General Manager position. During its reorganization, Union Pacific adjusted the job requirements of the General Director position to require five years of field experience to qualify for the position. Quiles lacked five years of field experience.

As Director, Quiles no longer reported to an “E-band” employee. Instead, he reported to Adelman, a fellow “D-band” employee. Prior to his deployment, Quiles was peers with other “D-band” employees, but, upon his return, he was peers with “C-band” employees. Quiles previously had supervisory authority over certain employees who, upon his return, became his peers.

Quiles attempted to resolve the dispute regarding his new job title through several meetings with Doerr and Union Pacific’s human resources department, but Quiles’s job title did not change. Quiles beca