Opinion ID: 404965
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the court order versus the massachusetts seniority statute

Text: 35 To implement its order prohibiting the Boston Police and Fire Departments from reducing the current level of minority representation, the district court required the maintenance of separate minority and nonminority lists with respect to seniority, reemployment and reinstatement. To this extent, therefore, the district court's order superseded the operation of the reverse seniority layoff provisions of the Massachusetts civil service statute, Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 31, § 39. 11 Most of the cases dealing with the inherent conflict between affirmative action programs and vested seniority rights have concerned private employers and Title VII. And, until recently, the dispute has mainly centered on hiring and promotion. 36 There are three Supreme Court cases that focus on the problem of seniority rights and discrimination against minorities. Franks v. Bowman Transp. Co., 424 U.S. 747, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976); International Bhd. of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977), and American Tobacco Co., et al. v. Patterson, et al., --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 1534, 71 L.Ed.2d 748 (1982). In Franks the district court had found that the employer had discriminated in making hiring, transfer, and discharge decisions, all of which occurred after July 2, 1965, the date on which the prohibition against racial discrimination under Title VII took effect as to private employers. Franks v. Bowman Transp. Co., 424 U.S. at 751, 758, 96 S.Ct. at 1257, 1261 n.10. The Supreme Court held that section 703(h) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(h) 12 did not modify or restrict relief otherwise appropriate once an illegal discriminatory practice occurring after the effective date of the Act is proved, id. at 761-62, 96 S.Ct. at 1262-63 and that class-based seniority relief for identifiable victims of illegal hiring discrimination was a form of relief generally appropriate under § 706(g). Id. at 779, 96 S.Ct. at 1271; accord, Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. at 346-48, 97 S.Ct. at 1860-61; EEOC v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., 556 F.2d 167, 174 (3d Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 915, 98 S.Ct. 3145, 57 L.Ed.2d 1161 (1978); see Ass'n Against Discrimination v. City of Bridgeport, 647 F.2d 256, 278 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 397, 70 L.Ed.2d 213 (1981); Guardian's Ass'n of New York City v. Civil Service, 633 F.2d 232, 249-54 (2d Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 940, 101 S.Ct. 3083, 69 L.Ed.2d 954 (1981); Chance v. Board of Examiners & Bd. of Educ., 534 F.2d 993, 1007 (2d Cir. 1976) (reh'g in banc ), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 965, 97 S.Ct. 2920 (1977). 37 In Teamsters the Court did not retreat from the rule set forth in Franks, but dealt instead with the effect of section 703(h) on awarding retroactive seniority to redress prior discrimination that had occurred both before and after the effective date of Title VII. The district court in Teamsters had found that the employer had discriminated by implementing hiring, assignment and promotion policies that caused black and hispanic employees to occupy the lower paying and less desirable jobs. 431 U.S. at 329-31, 97 S.Ct. at 1851-52. As to those plaintiffs claiming that they had been discriminated against after the effective date of Title VII, the Court stood firm on its Franks ruling. Id. at 347, 97 S.Ct. at 1860. But the Court denied relief to those plaintiffs alleging discrimination that occurred prior to the effective date of the Act and held that an otherwise neutral, legitimate seniority system does not become unlawful under Title VII simply because it may perpetuate pre-Act discrimination. Id. at 353-54, 97 S.Ct. at 1863-64. 38 The most recent case, American Tobacco Co. v. Patterson, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 1534, 71 L.Ed.2d 748, dealt with the question whether § 703(h) applied to seniority systems adopted after the effective date of Title VII, July 2, 1965. After an exegesis of the statutory history of Title VII, the Court concluded that § 703(h) immunizes a bona fide seniority system whenever adopted unless intentional discrimination was proven. Id. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1541. American Tobacco Co. did not explicitly overrule the holding of Franks that § 703(h) does not bar appropriate relief if an illegal discriminatory practice occurring after the effective date of the Act is proved. 39 We find nothing in this trilogy that precludes a court from ordering relief to remedy discrimination that exists apart from the adoption or application of a bona fide seniority system. The original consent decrees in the cases before us, decided long before the Supreme Court cases, were directed at such independent violations, the use of discriminatory certification examinations. None of the Supreme Court cases apply to the basic issue at stake here; the power of a court in a litigated discrimination case to ensure that relief already ordered not be eviscerated by seniority-based layoffs. To hold a seniority system inviolate in such circumstances would make a mockery of the equitable relief already granted. 40 Two recent Second Circuit cases are analogous to our situation. Guardians Ass'n v. Civil Service, 633 F.2d 232 (2d Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 940, 101 S.Ct. 3083, 69 L.Ed.2d 954 (1981), was an action brought under Title VII, Title VI and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 by black and hispanic members of the New York City Police Department, alleging that layoffs carried out pursuant to a last hired, first fired plan were discriminatory because the Department's entry examinations administered during the years 1968 to 1970 were discriminatory, and that but for such discrimination plaintiffs would have been hired earlier and thus would have accrued sufficient seniority to withstand being fired. The court upheld the district court's findings that the entry examinations were discriminatory and held that the use of such tests as late as 1974 violated Title VII. It held that § 703(h) did not immunize post-Act hiring on the basis of an eligibility list reflecting performance on pre-Act discriminatory examinations. Id. at 253. In Association Against Discrimination v. City of Bridgeport, 647 F.2d 256 (2d Cir. 1981), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 1611, 71 L.Ed.2d 847 (1982), the Second Circuit affirmed its holding in Guardians that a municipality could be held liable under Title VII for post-Act hiring based on a pre-Act discriminatory hiring list. Id. at 272-74. 41 It is now settled that remedies to right the wrong of past discrimination may suspend valid state laws. Carter v. Gallagher, 452 F.2d 315, 328 (8th Cir. 1961) (reh'g in banc ), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 950, 92 S.Ct. 2045, 32 L.Ed.2d 338 (1972); United States v. Mississippi, 339 F.2d 679 (5th Cir. 1964); United States v. Duke, 332 F.2d 759 (5th Cir. 1963). See generally Note, Last Hired, First Fired Layoffs and Title VII, 88 Harv.L.Rev. 1544, 1557-60 (1975). 42 We emphasize that the district court orders do not completely nullify the seniority statute. Nor do they mandate the firing of any particular employees. The orders allow the statute to be followed so long as the level of minority representation is not reduced beyond that which prevailed at the time the personnel reductions began. The order was designed to operate within the framework of the statute, although modifying it to the extent necessary to preserve the integration already achieved. 43 We hold that the court's orders prevail over the Massachusetts seniority statute.