Opinion ID: 403759
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the claim under the equal pay act

Text: 28 Two preliminary procedural difficulties with the Equal Pay Act claim can be handled quickly. GPO contends that Judge Richey erred in ordering a new trial on the Equal Pay Act issues, rather than entering judgment for GPO on the basis of Judge Waddy's oral ruling. Plaintiffs contend that Judge Richey erred in following Judge Waddy's decision not to order notice of the Equal Pay Act claims to class members or to allow filing of consents retroactive to the initial date of filing. Record (R.) 218A, J.A. 158. We affirm Judge Richey on both points. 29 1. The Retrial. At the close of the plaintiffs' case in the first trial, Judge Waddy dismissed the claim for relief under the Equal Pay Act on GPO's motion pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(b) (allowing dismissal if upon the facts and the law the plaintiff has shown no right to relief). Judge Waddy's ruling from the bench was accompanied by a definition of the plaintiffs' Equal Pay Act burden and oral findings of fact, and a promise to reduce both to writing. Tr. Mar. 28, 1978, at 2-14, J.A. II, 1-13. GPO complains that Judge Richey was obligated to enter judgment on the Equal Pay Act dismissal and inadequately explained his reasons for vacating the dismissal. GPO Brief at 13, 26; GPO Reply Brief at 6-11. Neither contention has merit. 30 The federal rules treat the death or disability of the trial judge as follows: 31 If by reason of death, sickness, or other disability a judge before whom an action has been tried is unable to perform the duties to be performed by the court under these rules after a verdict is returned or findings of fact and conclusions of law are filed, then any other judge regularly sitting in or assigned to the court in which the action was tried may perform those duties; but if such other judge is satisfied that he cannot perform those duties because he did not preside at the trial or for any other reason, he may in his discretion grant a new trial. 32 Fed.R.Civ.P. 63. If the trial judge in a non-jury trial becomes disabled before filing findings of fact and conclusions of law, a new trial is probably obligatory, absent consent of the parties to a decision without retrial. 4 GPO contends that Judge Waddy's findings of fact and conclusions of law issued from the bench sufficed to permit Judge Richey to enter judgment. We need not reach this issue, however, because Rule 63 at most gives a successor judge the power to enter judgment; 5 it does not obligate him to do so. 6 The premise underlying Rule 63-that the successor judge may be unable to assess with security the significance or credibility of what his predecessor heard-is amply justified in complex litigation such as this. We note particularly with respect to this case that 1) a motion to reconsider the Equal Pay Act bench ruling was sub judice when Judge Waddy died; 2) Judge Waddy was unable to amplify his findings as he announced he would; and 3) under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b), it would have been open to Judge Waddy to reconsider and revise the Equal Pay ruling at any time before entry of judgment on the Title VII claim. 33 GPO further contends that Judge Richey did not make findings adequate to support his order of a new trial. As Rule 63 allows a successor judge to order a new trial when his predecessor issued oral rulings, there would appear to be no need for the findings GPO demands. We therefore hold that Judge Richey properly exercised his discretionary power under Rule 63 to order a new trial of the Equal Pay Act claims. 34 2. Retroactive Consent Under the Equal Pay Act. Suits for recovery under the Equal Pay Act differ from the mainstream of class actions under the Federal Rules. Under the Equal Pay Act, members of the class may recover only if they file consents to join the class of parties plaintiff, 29 U.S.C. § 216(b) (Supp. III 1979). Conversely, members who do not opt in to the Equal Pay Act class will not be bound by a decision as to other plaintiffs. See, e.g., LaChapelle v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 513 F.2d 286, 288 (5th Cir. 1975). Class actions brought under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(3), such as Title VII suits in which monetary relief is sought, by contrast are opt-out suits, binding and benefiting all members of the class who do not specifically request exclusion. Under the Federal Rules, two different kinds of notice may be appropriate in opt-out class action suits. First, members of the potential class are to be sent the best notice to all members who can be identified through reasonable effort, of the pendency of the suit and the fact that they will be bound unless they opt out. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(c)(2). Second, they may be notified of the implications of the suit for other legal rights that they may have. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(d)(2) (requiring notice for the protection of the members of the class or otherwise for the fair conduct of the action). 35 After conditional certification of their Title VII suit as a class action under Rule 23, plaintiffs moved to have notice of the pendency of the Equal Pay Act claims sent to all potential plaintiffs pursuant to Rule 23(d). R. 28. Judge Waddy denied the motion, J.A. 127, as the trial judge may do if notice appears unnecessary to protect the rights of others or conduct the lawsuit fairly. After the second trial, but before any decision was rendered, plaintiffs moved Judge Richey to require distribution of notice of the Equal Pay Act claims and to allow consents to be filed retroactively. R. 148. 7 Judge Richey denied the motion, stating that he declined in this instance to depart from the law of the case declared by Judge Waddy. J.A. 159. On this appeal, the plaintiffs contend that Judge Waddy's original ruling was in error, and should be reversed together with Judge Richey's perpetuation of it. 36 We in turn decline to disturb Judge Richey's ruling. Although Rule 63 allows a successor to a disabled judge to order a new trial, this grant of power does not encompass relitigation of all issues decided by the predecessor judge. The policy behind Rule 63 is that the successor judge, not having heard witnesses at the trial, may be unable to resolve issues of credibility. 7 J. Moore, Federal Practice P 63.05 (2d ed. 1979); 11 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2922 (1973). See also FDIC v. Siraco, 174 F.2d 360 (2d Cir. 1949). Rule 63 is not an invitation to reargument before a new judge of legal questions that had been determined by the original judge. 11 C. Wright & A. Miller § 2922 (1973). 37 It is true that the doctrine of the law of the case, unlike res judicata but like stare decisis, does not preclude reconsideration of erroneous decisions. See 1B J. Moore, Federal Practice P 0.04 (2d ed. 1980). While judicial deference to colleagues is desirable to deter judge-shopping, reconsideration of errors may be especially appropriate where the predecessor judge cannot perform the task himself. See 18 C. Wright & A. Miller § 4478 (1980); Vestal, Law of the Case: Single-Suit Preclusion, 1967 Utah L.Rev. 1, 17. However, given the fact that consent forms were circulated by the bindery workers' union, R. 31, we are not compelled to conclude that Judge Waddy committed reversible error in refusing to order that Rule 23(d) notice of the pendency of the Equal Pay Act claims be sent. We therefore uphold Judge Richey's refusal to depart from the law of the case in this instance. 8
38 An employer violates the Equal Pay Act by paying unequal wages for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility and which are performed under similar working conditions. 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1) (1976). Determination that an Equal Pay Act violation has occurred involves both a legal and a factual problem. The legal issue is the standard of equality to be applied under the Act. The factual issue is whether the jobs in question met the standard, and the burden of proof is on plaintiffs to show that they did. Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U.S. 188, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 41 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974); Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 567 F.2d 429, 448 (D.C.Cir.1976). Once plaintiffs meet their burden, the burden then shifts to defendants to show that the pay differential was justified under one of the exceptions to the Act, Corning Glass, 417 U.S. at 205, 94 S.Ct. at 2233; Laffey, 567 F.2d at 448. With respect to plaintiffs' burden, GPO alleges both that the trial judge employed the wrong legal standard and that his finding that plaintiffs had met their burden for operators of the Smyth sewing machine was clearly erroneous. GPO also claims to have rebutted plaintiffs' case by showing that traditional industry classifications and training requirements justified the differential. The plaintiffs contend that they met their burden not only as to the Grade 4 bindery workers, but with respect to other bindery workers whose Equal Pay case was unsuccessful in the district court: The oversewer and Singer machine operators, handworkers, and passport inspectors. 39 1. The Legal Standard. Like most legislation, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was a compromise. Congress for several years had considered competing versions of what ultimately became the Act. Some versions sought to prohibit unequal pay for comparable work; this approach had been used during World War II by the National War Labor Board. S.Rep.No.176, 88th Cong., 1st Sess. 3 (1963) (hereinafter, Senate Report ). Other versions sought only to prohibit unequal pay for equal work. Equality prevailed, in the main to avoid imposing job comparisons on employers. See, e.g., 108 Cong. Rec. 9196 (1963) (Remarks of Rep. Frelinghuysen); id. at 9209 (Remarks of Rep. Goodell). 40 Although passing the more limited statute, Congress recognized the disputatious nature of the term equality. Sponsors of more extensive versions of the bill were careful to emphasize that equality did not mean identity: it is not the intent of the Senate that jobs must be identical. Such a conclusion would obviously be ridiculous. Id. at 9761 (Remarks of Sen. McNamara). Sponsors in the House, although anxious to emphasize the limited nature of the bill, also used language short of absolute identity: 41 I think it is important that we have clear legislative history at this point. Last year when the House changed the word 'comparable' to 'equal' the clear intention was to narrow the whole concept ... the jobs involved should be virtually identical, ... very much alike or closely related to each other. 42 Id. at 9197 (Remarks of Rep. Goodell). The legislative history thus contains ammunition both for those who would insist on a very narrow reading of equality, and for those who would urge a more expansive understanding of the term. 9 43 Congress did not, however, leave interpretation of the diffuse term equal completely unchannelled. It wrote four aspects of equal work into the statute itself: equal skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. These factors are commonly used in job evaluation as practiced by industrial engineers, and Congress clearly intended the statute to be interpreted in light of this body of expertise. 10 44 In applying the term equal work, courts have been led by the legislative history toward a substantially equal test, a middle course between a requirement that the jobs in question be exactly alike and a requirement that they be merely comparable. 11 This middle path was adopted by implication by the Supreme Court in its only full-scale treatment of the Equal Pay Act, Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U.S. 188, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 41 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974). In addition to normal shift differentials, Corning paid a higher base wage to male inspectors on the night shift than to female inspectors on the day shift. The differential was a relic of the days when it was necessary to recruit men to work at night because women were prohibited from doing so by state statutes. In finding a violation of the Equal Pay Act, the Court interpreted the statutory factor of working conditions in light of its meaning in job evaluation plans, which generally confine the meaning of working conditions to job surroundings and hazards, id. at 202, 94 S.Ct. at 2231. Because night work and day work are different in one respect-the time of performance-Corning Glass implicitly rejected an Equal Pay Act standard of virtual identity, although the case did not explicitly formulate an Equal Pay Act test. 45 Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 567 F.2d 429 (D.C.Cir.1976), the leading Equal Pay Act case in this circuit, adopted the substantially equal test in reliance on Corning Glass. Our discussion of the test read in full: 46 For (it) is now well settled that jobs need not be identical in every respect before the Equal Pay Act is applicable; (citing Corning Glass ) the phrase equal work does not mean that the jobs must be identical, but merely that they must be substantially equal. A wage differential is justified only if it compensates for an appreciable variation in skill, effort or responsibility between otherwise comparable job work activities. 47 567 F.2d at 449 (citations omitted). The substantially equal test has now been adopted by every other circuit to pass on the question. 12 Judge Richey employed this test in the case at bar, J.A. 195, and we reaffirm our approval of it. 48 This case, however, presents a difficult and largely unexplored problem in the interpretation of the Equal Pay Act: whether work may be substantially equal, in spite of the fact that it is performed on different machines. 13 Bindery worker Grade 4s work on the Smyth sewing machine; bookbinders do not. GPO contends that this fact is sufficient as a matter of law to preclude the finding of an Equal Pay violation. Judge Richey concluded that it was not, and that work on the Smyth was sufficiently like the work performed by bookbinders on other machines as to allow relief under the Act. J.A. 195. 49 In determining that work on different machines could be substantially equal, Judge Richey was guided by Department of Labor regulations: 50 (T)he performance of jobs on different machines or equipment would not necessarily result in a determination that the work so performed is unequal within the meaning of the statute if the equal pay provisions otherwise apply. 51 29 C.F.R. § 800.123 (1980). This court has paid substantial deference to Department of Labor regulations in interpreting the Act, see Laffey, 567 F.2d at 449, 14 and we continue to do so. 52 Congress never specifically considered whether work performed on different machines might be equal for purposes of the Equal Pay Act. 15 To refuse to find work equal merely because it is performed on different machines, however, would be to insist on the requirement of exact identity declared obviously ridiculous by Senator McNamara and rejected by all of the courts treating the subject. See supra at 271, 272 n.12. The result would be largely to foreclose application of the Act whenever machines are involved-an evisceration of the Act clearly at odds with Congress' broad remedial goals. See Senate Report at 1; House Report at 2. For example, different typewriters, power saws or automobiles are different machines. 53 Moreover, the very fact that Congress chose to channel the term equality by the language of job evaluation programs presupposes a recognition that jobs can be substantially equal even though performed with different equipment or machines. Job evaluation plans focus on experience, skill, surroundings, and responsibility and clearly contemplate assigning common classifications to work on related, albeit different machines. 16 Along these lines, in the congressional debates Representative Goodell presented guidelines for the interpretation of job content that emphasized that jobs be normally related and fall within closely related job classifications-both descriptions that apply easily to different components of a single productive process. Of course, work on different machines can differ radically; Representative Goodell used the example that driving a truck would not be equal to piloting a tug boat. 109 Cong.Rec. 9209 (1963). The question in every Equal Pay Act case is simply whether the jobs in question are sufficiently related and sufficiently similar in skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions, as to be substantially equal. 54 2. The Facts of This Case and the Standard of Review. The trial judge's findings of fact in an equal pay case are like any other finding of fact; they may be overturned on appeal only if clearly erroneous. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a); see, e.g., United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 541, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948); Laffey, 567 F.2d at 453; Kinsey v. First Regional Securities, Inc., 557 F.2d 830, 835-36 (D.C.Cir.1977); Causey v. Ford Motor Co., 516 F.2d 416, 420 (5th Cir. 1975). Judge Richey did not err in finding that GPO violated the Equal Pay Act with respect to bindery workers operating the Smyth sewing machine but not with respect to other bindery worker machine operators, handworkers, and passport inspectors. 55 a. Bindery Work Operators of the Smyth Sewing Machine. The Smyth sewing machine is a multi-needle machine for sewing groups of pages (signatures) together into what we would recognize as the inside of a book. The operator of the Smyth chooses the number of needles required for a particular job and sets thread and bobbin tension for each needle. She also sets the needles to position stitching properly along the spine of the book and sets guides to position signatures as they are sewn together. She is responsible for routine maintenance tasks such as changing needles and oiling and cleaning the machines. In operating the machine, she opens signatures and places them on a pusher. Because the operator does not control the pace of the pusher, considerable dexterity is required to feed at the proper rate. The Smyth also runs paste along the spine of the book to ensure additional strength; the Smyth operator must coordinate a cutter at the proper moment when the inside of a particular book is sewn together. Tr. Mar. 8, 1979, at 55-65. 56 In finding that plaintiffs had met their Equal Pay Act burden to prove substantial equality between the jobs of the Smyth operators and bookbinders, Judge Richey relied heavily upon the testimony of plaintiffs' expert witness, James O'Connell, that operation of the Smyth is substantially equal to operation of many bookbinder machines. J.A. 186. He viewed O'Connell's testimony as buttressed by the testimony of plaintiffs' other expert, Bertram Gottlieb, and the testimony of journeymen bindery workers, bookbinders, and GPO officials. J.A. 166-72, 176-79, 186-87. Judge Richey discounted the testimony of defendant's expert Irwin Lazarus, upon finding flaws both in his methodology and its execution. J.A. 173-76. While GPO sought to question Mr. O'Connell's qualifications as an expert, Tr. Mar. 15, 1979, at 263-305, Mr. O'Connell was the personnel management specialist chosen by the Civil Service Commission to review GPO job classifications after plaintiffs filed their administrative complaint. GPO is hard pressed to attack the credentials of the expert assigned by the government to this case. In any event, it is not for us to second-guess reasonable judgments by the trial judge with regard to the weight to be accorded expert testimony. 57 Because he had been assigned to investigate the administrative complaint of Smyth operators, Mr. O'Connell compared the job of operating the Smyth to a wide range of bookbinder jobs. He initially determined that the Smyth's creation of a book's inside, and bookbinder tasks such as folding and cutting signatures, making a book cover (case) and casing the inside into the cover, were an integral part of the same productive process. Id. at 21. He noted their physical and organizational proximity and that they involved similar functions: gluing, stitching, cutting, and putting together the parts of a book. Within the process, Mr. O'Connell observed the Smyth and twenty-five bookbinder machine operations, to determine whether they involved similar difficulty, responsibility, and qualifications. Id. at 9, 70. He characterized the Smyth operation as more like many bookbinder jobs than the latter were like each other. The Smyth, he concluded, was in the middle range of difficulty, responsibility and qualification requirements of bookbinder machine operations. Id. at 20. 58 Cross-examination did elicit the admission that Mr. O'Connell had given similar effort ratings to the Smyth and a cloth cutter that required loading 100-lb. bolts in order to position them for cutting. Id. at 109. There is dispute about the extent to which different kinds and amounts of effort may be compared for purposes of a finding of equality under the Equal Pay Act. 17 The Department of Labor regulations define effort to include both mental and physical exertion, and allow effort of different kinds to be balanced in application of the Act, 29 C.F.R. § 800.127 (1980). To illustrate, the regulations suggest that the effort of a male checker who sometimes carries heavy packages may be equated with the effort of a female checker who sometimes performs fill-in work requiring greater dexterity, whereas a regular additional task of lifting from an assembly line could justify a wage differential. Id. § 800.218. GPO, disputing this approach, contends that jobs are substantially equal only if they involve effort of the same kind. 18 59 We need not reach this troublesome issue of how effort is to be defined. Cross-examination did not raise similar questions about the other bookbinders' machines to which plaintiffs' experts favorably compared the Smyth. To prove a violation under the Equal Pay Act, plaintiffs need only show their jobs were equal to the jobs of some bookbinders, but treated unequally. Plaintiffs need not show that their jobs were substantially similar to all, or even most bookbinder jobs. Id. § 800.238; Laffey, 567 F.2d at 450; Shultz v. Wheaton Glass Co., 421 F.2d 259, 264 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 398 U.S. 905, 90 S.Ct. 1696, 26 L.Ed.2d 64 (1970); Elisburg, Equal Pay in the United States: the Development and Implementation of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 Lab. L.J. 195 (1978). For purposes of an Equal Pay Act violation, it is irrelevant that GPO classifies the bookbinder jobs that resemble plaintiffs' together with other jobs that do not. The testimony of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses supports a finding that the Smyth operators' jobs were substantially equal to the jobs of some bookbinders. Operators of the Smyth sewing machine, therefore, carried their burden of establishing a prima facie case of an Equal Pay Act violation by GPO. 60 GPO makes two other objections to the plaintiffs' prima facie showing. First, GPO contends that bookbinders have supervisory authority over bindery workers with whom they work and thus more responsibility than Smyth operators. The trial judge's finding that bookbinders do not have supervisory authority, however, J.A. 188-89, is securely based in the trial record. For example, a Bindery superintendent, Kenneth Kingsbury, testified that bookbinders neither disciplined the bindery workers with whom they worked, nor were held accountable for their mistakes. Tr. Mar. 13, 1979, at 13-14. Moreover, quite a number of the bookbinders' machines to which the Smyth was compared favorably were operated by a single bookbinder, and thus presented no opportunity for direction of the work of others. 61 Second, GPO alleges that the plaintiffs' experts mistakenly compared single operations rather than entire jobs. Judge Richey, however, found explicitly that rotation among operations was not required of bookbinders. J.A. 176. His finding is amply supported by the trial testimony. Mr. Kingsbury testified that bookbinders normally had a regular assignment and that operators of major machines rarely changed assignments. Id. at 15-25. Assignments were cemented by seniority, and it was not unusual for bookbinders to spend entire careers in the same section of the Bindery. Id. at 16, 32. Mr. Kingsbury admitted that GPO had not formally studied the need for back-up rotation and had kept no formal statistics on bookbinder assignments. Id. at 17, 59. Ammi Potter, Mr. Kingsbury's successor as Bindery Supervisor, also testified that GPO had not evaluated whether it could operate with bookbinders who operated only one machine, Tr. Mar. 14, 1979, at 25-27. While it appears that as GPO's work force contracts, rotation may become more important, id. at 29-30, the record does not show that Judge Richey erred in concluding that rotation was not a necessary part of all bookbinders' jobs during the time the alleged violations of the Equal Pay Act took place. 62 We conclude that the plaintiffs succeeded in proving a prima facie case of an Equal Pay Act violation with respect to the Smyth operators. Once the plaintiffs have made out such a prima facie case, the burden shifts to the defendants to show that their payment of unequal wages was justified under one of the exceptions enumerated in the statute: (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earning by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex. 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1) (1976); Corning Glass, 417 U.S. 188, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 41 L.Ed.2d 1. Judge Richey found that GPO's only defense is that the bookbinder's job involves a four year apprenticeship requirement in the form of a training program that has traditionally excluded women and that the burden had not been met. J.A. 187. In this appeal, GPO contends that traditional industry patterns of classification and training are a differential based on a factor other than sex, and hence a defense to the Equal Pay Act charge. 63 Traditional industry practice was certainly the kind of difference contemplated as a factor other than sex under the Equal Pay Act. As Representative Goodell remarked, Differences in pay that are based upon historical and widely accepted differences in job content will not be challenged, if not based on sex. 109 Cong.Rec. 9209 (1963) (emphasis added). Traditional industry practice may reveal continuing fealty to sexual discrimination, however, and if so does not shield employers against the charge of an Equal Pay Act violation. E.g., Corning Glass, 417 U.S. at 205, 94 S.Ct. at 2233; Laffey, 567 F.2d at 451. For example, the traditions of paying women less than men, or of assigning different labelling to female and male jobs, no matter how hoary, are not defenses to the Equal Pay Act. To hold otherwise would protect the most egregious forms of discrimination, merely because, like Faulkner's Dilsey, they have endured. 64 The differences in machine assignments and training opportunities found at GPO were certainly longstanding in the binding industry. The record amply reveals, however, that these differences constituted a continuing structure of sexual discrimination. See supra pp. 265-266. The history of the binding industry, therefore, does not provide GPO with a defense to the Equal Pay Act violation charged here. We affirm Judge Richey's conclusion that GPO failed to rebut the plaintiffs' prima facie case that GPO violated the Equal Pay Act with respect to the Smyth operators. 65 b. Operators of Other Machines. The multi-needle oversewer machine cross-stitches the spine of a book, producing the stiff back characteristic of rebound volumes. The oversewer is less difficult to set up and considerably less difficult to operate than the Smyth. The oversewer operator does not open signatures, cut, or paste, and she controls the pace of the machine. The Singer is a heavy-duty version of the home favorite and performs straight, single-needle stitching. At GPO, it was used to sew the backs of passports, but has been replaced by automation and is now used only for occasional repairs. 66 The plaintiffs' expert O'Connell did not make a study of the oversewer or the Singer. The plaintiffs' case as to these machines depended solely on the testimony presented by their expert Gottlieb. Judge Richey found Mr. Gottlieb's testimony insufficient to support a threshold determination that the two jobs subsequently equated are substantially the same. J.A. 196. The record supports his conclusion, see, e.g., Tr. Mar. 8, 1979, at 72-73. 67 c. Handworkers. Handwork tasks performed by bindery workers include loading machines, inspecting products, gluing maps into books, and handsewing book spines. Bookbinders, too, are assigned a variety of handwork. One of the simplest of these tasks is making tablets by smearing glue along the edge of a stack of paper. The most difficult bookbinder hand tasks are performed in the library section, where books such as gold-embossed special editions are made. Both sides agree that the library handicraft cannot be compared to any bindery worker tasks; only Judge Richey's refusal to compare bindery workers' hand tasks with the simpler bookbinder operations is at issue here. 68 Judge Richey's findings of fact relied on the statement by the plaintiff's expert O'Connell that bindery worker hand tasks and even the simple bookbinder tasks were too disparate to be compared in absolute terms. J.A. 172. Although the plaintiffs' expert Gottlieb did compare the hand tasks, as Judge Richey also noted, we cannot second-guess the weight assigned expert testimony by the trial judge. We therefore affirm Judge Richey's holding that the handworkers should not recover under the Equal Pay Act. 69 d. Passport Inspectors. Replacing a male in the same job with a lower-paid female, or vice versa, is one of the most glaring violations of the Equal Pay Act. 29 C.F.R. § 800.114(c) (1980). E.g., DiSalvo v. Chamber of Commerce, 568 F.2d 593 (8th Cir. 1978); Hodgson v. American Bank of Commerce, 447 F.2d 416 (5th Cir. 1971). The female, however, must replace the male in the same job. The Equal Pay Act compares jobs, not tasks; an employer does not violate the Act by merely shifting a task to the employee receiving the lower salary, 29 C.F.R. § 800.119 (1980). 70 Before September 1978, the job of inspecting passports was performed by two bookbinders, one assigned to each passport team. In September 1978, GPO began training bindery workers to inspect passports; six were trained, and they performed the task on rotation. J.A. 172. Plaintiffs challenge Judge Richey's refusal to find that the reassignment violated the Equal Pay Act. Brief for Plaintiffs at 111-12. 71 The plaintiffs in this case made a clear showing that the task of passport inspection had been reassigned to bindery workers, with an increase in production quotas besides. They failed, however, to show that the female passport inspectors had stepped into formerly male jobs. Bookbinders inspected passports on a nearly full-time basis. When not needed in the passport cage, they rotated to some of the simpler bookbinder operations such as making pads or operating the round corner machine. Tr. Mar. 14, 1979, at 39. Bindery workers, however, were assigned to inspect passports approximately every two weeks, and in the interim joined a labor pool of bindery workers available for assignment to any bindery worker operation at GPO. Id. at 54, 64. The plaintiffs made no showing of what portion of their time bindery workers devoted to inspecting passports; for all we are told, it could have been as little as one-third. Without a showing that they had been assigned passport inspection nearly full time, as had the bookbinders, the plaintiffs did not create a record that mandates the conclusion that they had taken over a bookbinder job. We thus cannot find clear error in Judge Richey's failure to find that the reassignment violated the Equal Pay Act.
72 An employer who violates the Equal Pay Act is subject to the remedial provisions of the Equal Pay Act's statutory parent, the FLSA. For relief purposes, the FLSA does not distinguish between wages that were sexually discriminatory and wages that were deficient for other reasons, such as a failure to reach the current minimum. 29 U.S.C. § 206(b) (Supp. III 1979). The remedial provisions of the FLSA originally were simple: an employer was doubly liable to affected employees: for unpaid wages and an additional, equal amount in liquidated damages. 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), (c) (Supp. III 1979). In the original FLSA both awards were mandatory. Pub.L.No. 718, 52 Stat. 1069 (1938). Concerned that this remedial provision was sometimes unjustly harsh, Congress amended the FLSA by two provisions relevant here, Portal to Portal Pay Act of 1947 (Portal Act), Pub.L.No. 49, 61 Stat. 84 (1947). First, the Portal Act limited FLSA recovery to two years, or three years in the event of a willful violation. 29 U.S.C. § 255(a) (1976). For a named plaintiff, this period is calculated from the date suit was filed; for others, it is calculated from the date they opted into the lawsuit, id. § 216(c) (Supp. III 1979). Second, awards of liquidated damages are no longer mandatory. If the employer convinces the court that he paid the deficient compensation in good faith and had reasonable grounds for believing he was in compliance with the FLSA, the court has discretion to forego any or all of the allowable award of liquidated damages. Id. § 260 (1976). 73 In the case at bar, Judge Richey awarded the Smyth operators the difference between their actual wages and what they would have earned as bookbinders. J.A. 220. Because he found GPO's violation of the Equal Pay Act willful, J.A. 197, he specified that plaintiffs could recover back wages up to a limit of three years before the date they consented to join the suit. J.A. 216. He also awarded full liquidated damages to each Smyth operator. J.A. 220. 74 GPO raises interlocking objections to this remedial decree. First, GPO objects that Judge Richey's award of Equal Pay Act relief extends retroactively in some cases more than two years before the FLSA governed GPO. 19 GPO also urges us to rescind the award of liquidated damages, contending that it acted in good faith. Finally, GPO contends that the FLSA forecloses a retroactive award of liquidated damages here, because GPO had the best of all reasons for believing that its actions were not illegal under the FLSA-namely, that GPO was not covered by the FLSA. We dispose of these contentions in turn. 20 75 1. Retroactive Liability Under the FLSA Amendments of 1974. Courts often must decide whether a lawsuit is properly resolved under legal rules that were adopted after the controversy arose. A basic rule applied to this problem of retrospectivity is the sensible accommodation that a court is to apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision, unless doing so would result in manifest injustice or there is statutory direction or legislative history to the contrary. Bradley v. School Board of the City of Richmond, 416 U.S. 696, 711, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 2016, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974) (award of attorneys fees incurred in 1971 authorized by the Education Amendments of 1972). 21 Since every statute must pass constitutional muster, one outer boundary of this doctrine is set by the constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws-a prohibition that has been interpreted to bar the retroactive imposition of penal liability. 22 To conclude that the period of GPO's liability under the 1974 FLSA amendments may extend before 1974, we must therefore resolve three questions: first, whether the legislative history of the amendments prohibits their retrospective application in this manner; second, whether the application would result in manifest injustice; and finally, whether the application would run afoul of the constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws. We begin with the legislative history. 76 Neither statutory language nor legislative history contains the slightest hint that Congress intended to prohibit retroactive application of the 1974 extension of the FLSA to federal employees. The extension of FLSA coverage to the federal government was but a small part of Congress' general aim 77 to incorporate into the Fair Labor Standards Act a breadth of coverage and a minimum wage level sufficient to bring the Act closer to meeting its basic stated objective-the elimination of labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for the health, efficiency and general well being of workers. 78 Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1974, S.Rep.No.690, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 1-2 (1974); see also H.R.Rep.No.913, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 9 (1974) U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News p. 2811. The Amendments' sponsors emphasized that the legislation was intended to be comprehensive. E.g., 120 Cong.Rec. 4702 (1974) (Coverage should be interpreted broadly; and every effort should be made to insure that those employees who have been victims of violations of this act are made whole.) (Remarks of Sen. Williams). Moreover, similar amendments passed in 1973 had been vetoed by President Nixon, 119 Cong.Rec. 37,719 (1973), and Congress regarded the 1974 package as long overdue. S.Rep.No.690, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 3 (1974); H.R.Rep.No.913, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 4 (1974). 79 Although other features of the 1974 Amendments, such as the extension of FLSA coverage to domestic workers, were highly controversial, the extension to federal employees was not debated extensively. Once concerns about conflict with the civil service statutes has been allayed by bringing administration of the extension under the Civil Service Commission, see S.Rep.No. 690 at 23; H.R.Rep.No. 913 at 29, the extension passed Congress almost without discussion. All seemed to agree that the federal government should be held to the standards that it, in turn, imposed upon private industry. E.g., 120 Cong.Rec. 4697 (1974) (Remarks of Sen. Williams). The congressional debates contain no mention of retrospectivity as a potential problem, and indeed contain no mention of the fact that the Amendments would bring the federal government within the reach of the Equal Pay Act. 80 In contrast, Congress was troubled by the potentially harsh impact of implementation of some of the other 1974 Amendments. For example, the Amendments attempted to bring municipal policemen and firemen within the scope of the FLSA. Concerned that FLSA overtime pay requirements would impose hardship on local governments, Congress provided specifically for the phase-in of the requirements. Pub.L.No. 93-259, 88 Stat. 60-61; S.Rep.No. 690 at 24; H.R.Rep.No. 913 at 29. See also 120 Cong.Rec. 5734 (1974) (Remarks of Sen. Williams). Congress cushioned the impact of the 1974 Amendments when it found reason to do so; yet Congress appears to have found no reason to insulate the federal government against the immediate impact of the provisions of the FLSA, including the Equal Pay Act. The legislative history thus clearly permits the retrospective reach of the Equal Pay Act remedy. 81 Our second matter of inquiry is whether it would be manifestly unjust to apply the 1974 FLSA Amendments to GPO retrospectively. We perceive no manifest injustice in doing so. Bradley outlined a three factor test of when it is unjust to apply legal rules to controversies that antedate them: (a) the nature and identity of the parties, (b) the nature of their rights, and (c) the nature of the impact of the change in law upon those rights. 416 U.S. at 717, 94 S.Ct. at 2019. 82 Under the nature and identity of the parties, the Bradley court considered the balance of power between the parties and the interests advanced on both sides. In Bradley, the plaintiffs were children asserting their constitutional rights against a discriminatory public school system. The Court found no injustice in imposing a statutory award of attorneys' fees retroactively against such a defendant. Our situation is parallel. The plaintiffs are working women who have been unfairly denied wages by their own government. The defendant, GPO, is hardly the innocent actor being subjected to surprising and unexpected obligations. At least from 1969 on, see infra at p. 288, it had been told not to discriminate as it was found to have done. The nature of the parties in this litigation cuts in favor of retroactive application of the 1974 FLSA amendments to GPO. 83 Bradley next admonished that the nature of the parties' rights and the effect on such rights must be factored in. Retrospective application of a statute has been found manifestly unjust when it would deprive individuals of vested rights. For example, in Greene v. United States, 376 U.S. 149, 160, 84 S.Ct. 615, 621, 11 L.Ed.2d 576 (1964), the Court refused to deny monetary restitution to a federal employee who had received a final ruling in his favor, even though regulations had changed in the interim. GPO, by contrast, has never had a right to discriminate, even though sovereign immunity for a long time insulated GPO from liability for its transgressions. 23 Imposing pre-1974 liability on GPO will not violate GPO's rights; it will vindicate plaintiffs' rights to be free of discrimination. Nor will it adversely affect the rights of other GPO employees. We therefore find no injustice in imposing the full three-year period of FLSA liability upon GPO. 84 Our final inquiry is whether application of the 1974 Amendments to allow plaintiffs to recover for a period before 1974 would run afoul of the constitutional ban on ex post facto laws. As the ban has been interpreted to bar only retroactive penal liability, we must consider whether monetary awards under the FLSA are appropriately characterized as penal, or as merely compensatory for the purpose at hand. 85 The original FLSA mandated courts to award prevailing plaintiffs both unpaid wages and liquidated damages. Pub.L.No. 718, 52 Stat. 1069 (1938). Whereas the wage award clearly compensates employees for lost pay, the award of liquidated damages might appear aimed to deter or penalize wayward employers. Almost immediately after the passage of the FLSA, however, the Supreme Court determined that the mandatory liquidated damages were also compensatory, intended to reimburse workers for intangible losses-difficult to prove but nonetheless the very real consequences of unfair wages. Brooklyn Savings Bank v. O'Neil, 324 U.S. 697, 65 S.Ct. 895, 89 L.Ed. 1296 (1945); Overnight Motor Transport Co. v. Missel, 316 U.S. 572, 62 S.Ct. 1216, 86 L.Ed. 1682 (1942). 86 The Portal Act amendments of 1947, however, require review of whether liquidated damages under the FLSA are compensatory. The Portal Act allows the trial court to forgive liquidated damages when the employer shows that he acted in good faith and reasonably believed he had complied with the statute. 29 U.S.C. § 260 (1976). That innocent employers may now be spared FLSA liquidated damages could suggest that these damages are now penal. See, e.g., Richards, Monetary Awards in Equal Pay Act Litigation, 29 Ark.L.Rev. 328, 349 (1975). This court has yet to resolve this issue. Laffey, 567 F.2d at 465 n.271. 87 We now conclude that FLSA liquidated damages remain compensatory in character, even though they may be remitted. 24 Nothing in the statutory history of the Portal Act suggests that Congress was dissatisfied with the determination that liquidated damages were compensatory. Instead, the history of the Portal Act is replete with evidence that § 260 was intended to provide courts with flexibility when an award of liquidated damages would be unfair to the employer. E.g., H.R.Rep.No. 71, 93 Cong.Rec. 1489 (1947); 93 Cong.Rec. 1500 (1947) (Remarks of Rep. Robson); id. at 4389 (Remarks of Rep. Gwynne); see Hays v. Republic Steel Corp., 531 F.2d 1307, 1310 (5th Cir. 1976). A legislative decision to allow courts to balance compensating employees against imposing costs on employers hardly transforms the award to a penalty. Moreover, other sections of the FLSA do impose criminal penalties for willful violations, including willful violations of the Equal Pay Act. 29 U.S.C. §§ 216(a), 215(a) (2) (1976). 25 88 Our determination that FLSA liquidated damages are not penal disposes of our final concern about whether plaintiffs' Equal Pay Act recovery period may reach before 1974. We therefore turn to GPO's contentions that it was entitled to remission of all or part of the liquidated damages award because of the equities it cites. 89 2. GPO's Good Faith. Section 260 allows the trial judge to remit liquidated damages if an employer shows both good faith and reasonable grounds for believing that he had conformed with the FLSA. As evidence of its good faith, GPO brings to our attention both the apprenticeship program and the fact that wages at GPO were set by negotiations with the union. Brief at 50. These contentions merit only brief consideration. 90 First, section 260 provides specifically that even if the employer meets his burden of proof, a decision to spare him liquidated damages remains within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Remission is not obligatory; 26 given the record in this case, we can hardly say that Judge Richey abused his discretion here. 91 Second, a showing of good faith does not suffice for defendant's two-pronged burden under § 260. Defendants must show both subjective good faith and objectively reasonable grounds for believing that their actions complied with the statute. 29 C.F.R. § 790.22(b) (1980); Laffey, 567 F.2d at 463. Certainly after the FLSA applied to the federal government, GPO did not have reasonable grounds for believing itself in compliance with the statute. Judge Richey found that GPO had willfully violated the Equal Pay Act, because it was fully aware of the Equal Pay Act and adopted a deliberate and knowing course of conduct despite this awareness. J.A. 197. Indeed, GPO had been subject to a series of complaints, at least two unfavorable administrative reports, and finally, plaintiffs' lawsuit. GPO chose to defend the lawsuit, relying in large measure on traditional practices in the binding industry. However, as this court said in Laffey, That an employer and others in the industry have broken the law for a long time without complaints from employees is plainly not the reasonable ground to which the statute speaks. 567 F.2d at 465. 92 Finally, GPO's showing of good faith is highly ineffectual. Judge Richey explicitly found that the apprenticeship program itself had discriminated against bindery workers. J.A. 179-83; see discussion infra p. 285. As for its contention that wages were set by negotiation with the union, GPO cannot seek absolution by claiming that its discrimination was another's fault. E.g., Laffey, 567 F.2d at 465. 93 3. GPO's Grounds for Believing it had not Violated the FLSA. GPO's final contention is that it was entitled to remission of whatever portions of the liquidated damages award antedated the extension of the FLSA to GPO. As with GPO's protestations of good faith, this argument can be answered by noting that remission of liquidated damages is discretionary. It can also be answered by pointing out that § 260 imposes a two-pronged burden on employers, to show both that they acted in good faith and that they had reasonable grounds for believing their actions did not violate the FLSA. In the absence of a showing of good faith, see supra p. 282, GPO has failed to shoulder its burden under § 260. It may also be noted that wage discrimination based on sex violated federal employment policy declared by Executive Order years before the extension of the FLSA to GPO, see supra p. 264.