Opinion ID: 438801
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the remedies determination

Text: 126 Section 706(g) of Title VII empowers a court that has found illegal discrimination to order such affirmative action as may be appropriate, which may include, but is not limited to, reinstatement or hiring of employees, with or without back pay    or any other equitable relief as the court deems appropriate. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-5(g) (1976). The Conference Report accompanying amendment of Title VII in 1972 noted: 127 The provisions of this subsection are intended to give the courts wide discretion exercising their equitable powers to fashion the most complete relief possible. In dealing with the present section 706(g) the courts have stressed that the scope of relief under that section of the Act is intended to make the victims of unlawful discrimination whole, and that the attainment of this objective rests not only upon the elimination of the particular unlawful employment practice complained of, but also requires that the consequences and effects of the unlawful employment practice be, so far as possible, restored to a position where they would have been were it not for the unlawful discrimination. This broad reading of the need for effective remedies    is intended to be preserved in this bill   . 128 Section-by-Section Analysis of H.R. 1746, accompanying the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972--Conference Report, 118 Cong.Rec. 7166, 7168 (1972). The Supreme Court has also stressed the breadth of this remedial power. See Albemarle Paper Co., supra, 422 U.S. at 421, 95 S.Ct. at 2373; Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U.S. 747, 763-764, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 1263-1264, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976). 129 Having found pervasive discrimination at DEA, the District Court fashioned a tripartite remedial scheme: class-wide backpay for those at GS-11 and above, 35 promotion goals and timetables at DEA's upper levels, and class-wide frontpay for those at GS-11 and above. See Mem.Op. and Remedial Order, JA 114; Part I-C-2 supra. DEA raises three challenges to these remedies. First, the class-wide backpay award impermissibly circumvents the individualized remedial hearings required by Teamsters, supra, 431 U.S. at 361-364, 97 S.Ct. at 1867-1869. Second, the backpay award compensates for nonactionable pre-1972 discrimination. Third, the promotion goals and timetables exceed the court's remedial authority under Section 706(g) and violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
130 DEA objects to the District Court's decision to forego in this case the individualized relief hearings prescribed in Teamsters, supra, 431 U.S. at 361, 97 S.Ct. at 1867. The gravamen of DEA's objection is that class-wide relief may benefit some black agents who were not victims of illegal discrimination. The Court in Teamsters stated that when plaintiffs seek relief as victims of the discriminatory practice, a district court must usually conduct additional proceedings after the liability phase of the trial to determine the scope of individual relief. Id. In the wake of Teamsters individualized hearings have been common features of Title VII class actions. See, e.g., McKenzie v. Sawyer, 684 F.2d 62, 75 (D.C.Cir.1982). 131 Though Teamsters certainly raises a presumption in favor of individualized hearings, the case should not be read as an unyielding limit on a court's equitable power to fashion effective relief for proven discrimination. 36 The language of Teamsters is not so inflexible; after stating that individual hearings are usually required, Teamsters, supra, 431 U.S. at 361, 97 S.Ct. at 1867, the Court went on to note that [i]n determining the specific remedies to be afforded, a district court is 'to fashion such relief as the particular circumstances of a case may require to effect restitution.'  Id. at 364, 97 S.Ct. at 1869, quoting Franks, supra, 424 U.S. at 764, 96 S.Ct. at 1264. Later courts have often faced situations in which the Teamsters hearing preference had to bend to accommodate Title VII's remedial purposes. Primarily, courts have not required hearings when discrimination has so percolated through an employment system that any attempt to reconstruct individual employment histories would drag the court into a quagmire of hypothetical judgments. Thompson v. Boyle, 499 F.Supp. 1147, 1170 (D.D.C.1979) (quoting pettway v. aMerican casT iron piPe co., 494 f.2d 211, 260 (5th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1115, 99 S.Ct. 1020, 59 L.Ed.2d 74 (1979)), aff'd, 678 F.2d 257 (D.C.Cir.1982); Hamheed v. Int'l Ass'n of Ironworkers, 637 F.2d 506, 520 (8th Cir.1980). See also Stewart v. General Motors Corp., 542 F.2d 445, 452-453 (7th Cir.1976) (pre-Teamsters ), cert. denied, 433 U.S. 919, 97 S.Ct. 2995, 53 L.Ed.2d 1105 (1977); Bowe v. Colgate Palmolive Co., 416 F.2d 711, 721 (7th Cir.1969) (same). 132 Applying these principles to the present controversy, we note at the outset that the District Court did not rush willy-nilly to impose class-wide relief. The court specifically ordered individual relief hearings where feasible. All claims of backpay for discrimination at levels below GS-11 will be resolved in individualized hearings. See Mem.Op. at 3, JA 116. At these levels individualized hearings are appropriate because a small number of discernible decisions as to initial grade assignment and promotions will be in issue for each agent. These determinations are akin to those in Teamsters, where the required hearings were to involve a single determination as to whether individual plaintiffs had applied and were qualified for particular line driver positions in the trucking industry. 431 U.S. at 371-372, 97 S.Ct. at 1872-1873. 133 After careful consideration, the District Court here ordered class-wide relief only for discrimination above GS-11. The court had found that discrimination impeded black agents at every turn; blacks faced extra hurdles in DEA's initial grade assignments, work assignments, supervisory evaluations, imposition of discipline, and promotions. At the higher levels the cumulative effect of these pervasive discriminatory practices became severe, and the increased subjectivity in evaluations gave discrimination more room to work its effects. In such a situation exact reconstruction of each individual claimant's work history, as if discrimination had not occurred, is not only imprecise but impractical. Pettway, supra, 494 F.2d at 262. The District Court here specifically found that [e]ach major criterion in the promotion process at DEA was tainted by discrimination, making discrimination in the promotion process cumulative. Any attempt to recreate the employment histories of individual employees absent discrimination would result in mere guesswork. Mem.Op. at 2 n. 1, JA 115. Our role in reviewing this determination is limited. The framing of a remedial decree is left largely in the hands of the district judge, whose assessment of the needs of the situation is a factual judgment reviewable only for clear error   . McKenzie v. Sawyer, supra, 684 F.2d at 75. 134 We perceive no error in the District Court's finding that it would be impossible to reconstruct the employment histories of DEA's senior black agents. Examination of discrete promotion decisions, as difficult as even that might be, will not suffice. The decisive criteria for promotions decisions--supervisory evaluations, breadth of experience, and disciplinary history, see Part I-A supra--were themselves found to be tainted with illegal discrimination. The court found that discrimination had skewed evaluations of black agents, but the court could have had no way of knowing how much more favorable a particular agent's evaluation should have been, or how a fair evaluation might have affected the agent's chances for obtaining a particular promotion. Similarly, the court found that discrimination in work assignments--leaving black agents with a disproportionately large share of undercover assignments--had impeded black agents in promotions, but the court could have had no way to divine what other broadening experiences a particular agent might have had, and no way to gauge how this hypothetical additional experience would have affected particular promotion decisions. And though the court found that black agents have been disciplined more frequently and more severely than white agents committing similar infractions, the court could have had no way of knowing exactly what effect the disproportionate disciplinary sanctions had on a particular agent's chances for particular promotions. Finally, because promotions at DEA are cumulative, the effects of discrimination in promotions are also cumulative. Denial of promotion to one grade affects the agent's eligibility for later promotions to higher grades. 135 To require individualized hearings in these circumstances would be to deny relief to the bulk of DEA's black agents despite a finding of pervasive discrimination against them. In effect, DEA would have us preclude relief unless the remedial order is perfectly tailored to award relief only to those injured and only in the exact amount of their injury. Though Section 706(g) generally does not allow for backpay to those whom discrimination has not injured, this section should not be read as requiring effective denial of backpay to the large numbers of agents whom DEA's discrimination has injured in order to account for the risk that a small number of undeserving individuals might receive backpay. Such a result cannot be squared with what the Supreme Court has told us about the nature of a court's remedial authority under Title VII. [T]he scope of a district court's remedial powers under Title VII is determined by the purposes of the Act. Teamsters, supra, 431 U.S. at 364, 97 S.Ct. at 1869. A core purpose of Title VII is to make persons whole for injuries suffered on account of unlawful employment discrimination. Albemarle Paper Co., supra, 422 U.S. at 418, 95 S.Ct. at 2372. [F]ederal courts are empowered to fashion such relief as the particular circumstances require to effect restitution, making whole insofar as possible the victims of racial discrimination   . Franks, supra, 424 U.S. at 764, 96 S.Ct. at 1264; accord Albemarle Paper Co., supra, 422 U.S. at 418, 95 S.Ct. at 2372 (the District Courts have not merely the power but the duty to render a decree which will so far as possible eliminate the discriminatory effects of the past as well as bar like discrimination in the future); Teamsters, supra, 431 U.S. at 364-365, 97 S.Ct. at 1869-1870. The trial court found that the particular circumstances of this case required class-wide relief for black agents at GS-11 and above to ensure that they were made whole for the pervasive discrimination they have suffered. If effective relief for the victims of discrimination necessarily entails the risk that a few nonvictims might also benefit from the relief, then the employer, as a proven discriminator, must bear that risk. See Stewart v. General Motors Corp., supra, 542 F.2d at 452-453. 136
137 In calculating the backpay pool the District Court used the race coefficient of the first of plaintiffs' two salary regressions as the measure of average discrimination per agent. The first regression measured discrimination against all black agents, including those hired before 1972. This study may therefore have reflected the continuing effects of some discrimination occurring prior to 1972. See Parts I-B-1, II-B-1-b supra. Since the actionable period in this case commenced on July 15, 1972, use of the first regression might, according to DEA's argument, amount to compensation for some nonactionable discrimination. 37 7] Though the remedial order specifically states that backpay begins to accrue only as of July 15, 1972, see Remedial Order at 3, JA 121, DEA argues that a portion of the disparities between black and white agents as of that time (and thereafter) was caused by discrimination before 1972, and that DEA is therefore not liable for that portion. 138 The District Court found in the Liability Determination that while pre-1972 discrimination may have affected the statistics   , post 1972 discrimination largely contributed to those statistics. Findings p 7i, 508 F.Supp. at 697. The court also noted in the Remedial Order that plaintiffs' regressions provide an accurate measure of the extent to which blacks at DEA were paid less than comparably qualified whites [and]    provide an appropriate basis for classwide relief. Mem.Op. at 3, JA 116 (citation omitted). We are reluctant to disturb the trial court's finding on this factual issue. See McKenzie v. Sawyer, supra, 684 F.2d at 75. Nonetheless on the record as it now stands, we cannot affirm the District Court's decision to use the first regression as a basis for calculating the backpay pool. 139 Although the court properly found that the plaintiffs' evidence sufficed to support an inference of actionable discrimination, see Part II-B-1-b supra, the court's reliance on the first regression to determine backpay is problematic. The court never found that all of that regression's race coefficient reflected actionable post-1972 discrimination. 38 To do so the court would have had to find either that all discrimination reflected in the salary disparities occurred after 1972 or that the small portion of continuing effects of pre-1972 discrimination reflected in the disparities was the result of a continuing violation. See id. The court made neither finding, and having found in the Liability Determination that pre-1972 discrimination had been neither admitted nor proven, 508 F.Supp. at 696, the court cannot plausibly rely on a continuing violation theory in the Remedial Order as grounds for using the first salary regression as a benchmark for the backpay pool. 140 It may be that plaintiffs' first regression does reflect only post-1972 discrimination. DEA's complete failure to present evidence showing pre-1972 discrimination in the regression certainly supports this view. It may also be that the portion of the disparity that reflects continuing effects of pre-1972 discrimination might be actionable on a continuing violation theory. Or it may be that the small amount of continuing effects cannot plausibly be factored out of the study; if so, and if no more precise methods of ascertaining the amount of actionable discrimination are reasonably available to the court, the court would be faced with using either a mildly overcompensatory formula based on the first regression or a significantly undercompensatory formula based on the second regression. Use of the first regression under these circumstances might be permissible. 141 We cannot, however, resolve these matters on the present appeal. As the Supreme Court stressed in Lehman v. Trout, supra, --- U.S. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 1404, this court must scrupulously respect the factfinding prerogative of the District Court. In this case the District Court has not yet determined whether the first regression reflects only post-1972 discrimination, whether a continuing violation occurred that might permit compensation for whatever continuing effects the regression reflects, or whether the small portion of nonactionable continuing effects that might be reflected in the regression cannot be factored out. On remand, if the District Court is unable to find that any of these three factual circumstances exists, the court must devise a new backpay formula.
142 The District Court ordered that one black be promoted for every two whites to positions above GS-12 at DEA until blacks made up 10 percent of all agents at each grade above GS-12 or until five years after the order was entered. DEA objects to this aspect of the remedy for the same reason that it objects to class-wide backpay: some individual agents might receive promotions they do not deserve. DEA argues that promotion goals and timetables exceed a court's remedial power under Title VII unless every person who potentially benefits from the relief has been individually shown to have been discriminatorily denied a specific promotion. According to DEA, Section 706(g) mandates this result. See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000-5(g) (1976) (No order of the court shall require the    promotion of an individual as an employee,    if such individual was refused    advancement    for any reason other than discrimination   .). DEA also argues that such goals and timetables violate the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. 143 Though DEA's claims are not without some superficial appeal, Section 706(g) must not be read as requiring an exact fit between those whom an employer's discrimination has victimized and those eligible under promotion goals and timetables. The language on which DEA relies was aimed at ensuring that Title VII was not read as giving courts authority to remedy racial imbalance as an evil in itself, i.e., absent any finding that illegal discrimination caused the imbalance. See EEOC v. AT&T, 556 F.2d 167, 175 (3d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 915, 98 S.Ct. 3145, 57 L.Ed.2d 1161 (1978). The language should not be stretched to support a requirement of absolute precision in fashioning promotion goals and timetables when such a requirement would frustrate effective relief for those who were victimized by discrimination. 39 Every federal Court of Appeals in this nation has approved remedial use of goals and timetables without requiring that each and every potentially eligible person be shown to have been a victim of discrimination. 40 Nor can the imposition of quotas to remedy proven discrimination be said to violate the Constitution's guarantees of equal protection. Whatever the current status of affirmative action absent a finding of discrimination, the Supreme Court has made clear that such relief is not unconstitutional when used to remedy proven discrimination. See Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District, 402 U.S. 1, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971); Bakke v. Board of Regents of the University of California, 438 U.S. 265, 302, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 2754, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978) (Powell, J., concurring); id. at 363-386, 98 S.Ct. at 2785-2797 (Brennan, White, Marshall and Blackmun, JJ, concurring). 144 Nonetheless promotion goals and timetables--even if as admirably crafted as those at issue here--must be used cautiously. Such relief intrudes into the structure of employment relations and may at times upset the legitimate promotion expectations of individuals in the majority group. We must take a careful look at the District Court's decision to use goals and timetables in this case. 145 We are persuaded that the District Court's order that one black be promoted for every two whites to positions above GS-12 was not appropriate. Strict goals and timetables should not be imposed when alternative, equally effective methods could    supplant resort to a quota. Thompson v. Sawyer, supra, 678 F.2d at 294. See Sledge v. J.P. Stevens & Co., 585 F.2d 625, 646 (4th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 981, 99 S.Ct. 1789, 60 L.Ed.2d 241 (1979); United States v. City of Chicago, 549 F.2d 415, 437 (7th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 875, 98 S.Ct. 225, 54 L.Ed.2d 155 (1977); NAACP v. Allen, 493 F.2d 614, 621 (5th Cir.1974). The District Court did not consider whether less severe remedies might prove equally efficacious in this case. We therefore vacate the District Court's imposition of goals and timetables, and remand for additional consideration of the propriety of such remedies in this case. 146 In determining whether less severe remedies might prove equally effective the court must evaluate the likelihood that the employer will implement the remedy in good faith. See Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality v. City of St. Louis, 616 F.2d 350, 364 (8th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 938, 101 S.Ct. 3079, 69 L.Ed.2d 951 (1981); NAACP v. Allen, supra, 493 F.2d at 621. One important indicium is the employer's past behavior in implementing equal opportunity programs, either voluntarily or in response to court order. See Ass'n Against Discrimination In Employment, Inc. v. City of Bridgeport, 647 F.2d 256, 284 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 988, 102 S.Ct. 1611, 71 L.Ed.2d 847 (1981); Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality, supra, 616 F.2d at 364. This court has some doubt that DEA's past record on equal employment opportunity warrants application of strict goals and timetables. DEA has not been before this court in the past on identical or related claims of discrimination, and thus has not shown any recalcitrance in remedying discrimination pursuant to court order. Nor does DEA's overall approach to equal employment matters lead us to conclude that DEA will be unlikely to remedy the proven discrimination in promotions once this court orders it to do so. The record contains significant uncontradicted evidence of DEA's institutional good faith in implementing equal employment opportunity programs (summarized in brief for appellants at 66-67). Of course, the determination of appropriate relief is for the District Court in the first instance. We also vacate the District Court's order of class-wide frontpay because the frontpay order was premised on the existence of promotion goals and timetables. The District Court is free to impose a new frontpay order on remand if it deems one appropriate. 147 On remand we encourage the District Court to consider other remedial options to ensure that black agents attain their rightful places at the upper levels of DEA. We note in particular that a promotion bottleneck appears to exist at the GS-12 level. While black agents manage to arrive at this level eventually, few progress beyond this point. In remedying promotion discrimination at this point and at all levels, the court is of course free to establish promotion guidelines and to monitor DEA's progress in meeting those guidelines, or to fashion any other appropriate relief.