Source: http://openjurist.org/232/f3d/933
Timestamp: 2013-05-21 13:51:04
Document Index: 760193367

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 501', '§ 791', '§ 1614', '§ 501', '§ 2000', '§ 794', '§ 501', '§ 12111', '§ 1220112204', '§ 791', '§ 794', '§ 501']

232 F3d 933 Trayon Redd, v. Lawrence H. Summers, Secretary of the United States Treasury, | OpenJurist
232 F. 3d 933 - Trayon Redd, v. Lawrence H. Summers, Secretary of the United States Treasury,	Home232 f3d 933 trayon redd, v. lawrence h. summers, secretary of the united states treasury,
232 F3d 933 Trayon Redd, v. Lawrence H. Summers, Secretary of the United States Treasury, 232 F.3d 933 (D.C. Cir. 2000)
Trayon Redd, Appellantv.Lawrence H. Summers, Secretary of the United States Treasury, Appellee
Redd, who is 5'734 tall and weighs about 348 pounds, perceived the Bureau's behavior in these affairs as a response to her weight. (So far as appears, Redd's weight did not change between her hiring in 1995 and her dismissal in 1996.) She has brought claims against the Bureau under §§ 501 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ("RHA"). Section 501 provides for interagency coordination relating to federal employment of persons with disabilities, and although it does not explicitly either prohibit federal government disability discrimination in employment, or authorize prohibitory regulations, it is understood to support the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission's adoption of regulations that do so.29 U.S.C. § 791; see 29 C.F.R. § 1614.203(b). These regulations alone established the law on disability discrimination in federal government employment until an RHA amendment in 1978 allowed private litigants to enforce rights under § 501 in suits employing the "remedies, procedures, and rights set forth in" the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16.29 U.S.C. § 794a(a)(1). In 1992 Congress again amended the RHA to provide that the standards used to judge "non-affirmative action employment discrimination" under § 501 "shall be the standards applied under" the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12111 et seq. and §§ 1220112204 and 12210. 29 U.S.C. § 791(g). See generally Barth v. Gelb, 2 F.3d 1180, 1183-84 (D.C. Cir. 1993). Section 504 of the RHA addresses federal disability discrimination in a different sphere--the administration of a federal program or activity. 29 U.S.C. § 794(a). Redd brought claims against the Bureau under both provisions, claiming for purposes of § 501 that it was in truth her employer. Her claims against Aspen under the D.C. Human Rights Act are not before us, as she has not appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment on those claims.
This court has never invoked Spirides to resolve an issue of joint employment, although the Fifth Circuit has done so, see Fields v. Hallsville Independent School District, 906 F.2d 1017, 1019-20 (5th Cir. 1990). For a joint employment test, a fairly standard formulation is that of the Third Circuit, namely, whether "one employer[,] while contracting in good faith with an otherwise independent company, has retained for itself sufficient control of the terms and conditions of employment of the employees who are employed by the other employer." NLRB v. Browning-Ferris Industries of Pennsylvania, Inc., 691 F.2d 1117, 1123 (3d Cir. 1982). Because the parties have not argued the issue we will not try to resolve which test is applicable or indeed whether there is a material difference between the two, but simply note the possibility of arguments on the point.
Accepting the parties' assumptions arguendo, we proceed to apply Spirides. The decision identifies one criterion--the putative employer's "right to control the 'means and manner' of the worker's performance"--as central to classification as an employee or independent contractor. 613 F.2d at 831.Elaborating, it observes that if the putative employer has "the right to control and direct the work of an individual, not only as to the result to be achieved, but also as to the details by which that result is achieved, an employer/employee relationship is likely to exist." Id. at 831-32. It then proceeds to list eleven "[a]dditional matters of fact" that may be relevant.Id. at 832. While the eleven factors should ideally be used to address the question of control--with both control and the eleven factors being evaluated simultaneously--we consider the two in succession.
We take the control test first. In the nine months Redd worked at the Bureau, there was only one short period in which Banks involved herself in the "means and manner" of Redd's work--her tour presentation. That involvement occurred just nine days before Redd's termination. On March 12, 1996, Banks and Walls met with Redd, told her that her performance was defective, and removed her from her duties. Between March 12 and March 20, Banks actively helped Redd improve her tour presentation over the course of five or six meetings. Walls participated in all but two of these--on March 14, when Banks, while escorting Redd to the tour post, reiterated that the latter should memorize her spiel, and on March 20, when Banks accompanied Redd on an evaluation tour. But both Banks and Walls made the decision to allow Redd to do such a trial run. Further, though Walls was not physically present during Redd's tour, Walls said in her deposition that she listened to Redd's performance from the listening booth. Banks's brief and chaperoned intervention into Redd's routine does not qualify as "control[ling] the 'means and manner' " of her performance.
Home232 f3d 933 trayon redd, v. lawrence h. summers, secretary of the united states treasury,