Opinion ID: 347588
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Age Requirement

Text: 166 In 1970, at the same time that Stockham imposed the high school education requirement for selection to the apprenticeship program, the company added a maximum age limit for apprenticeship training of thirty, excluding time in military service. The plaintiffs cite this as another requirement that serves to freeze in the effects of past discrimination. As we cited in the preceding section of this opinion, the district court found that the requirement had no disproportionate effect on black employees. 394 F.Supp. at 497. We do not agree. 167 Because of the company's policy of excluding blacks from the apprenticeship program in the past, the age requirement operates to prevent all blacks who reached the age of thirty before 1971, the first year any blacks were admitted into the program, from having an opportunity for apprenticeship training. In comparison, no white has been excluded by the age requirement who was not subject to consideration for the program before he became thirty years of age. 168 The age requirement thus operates as a practice neutral on its face but perpetuating the effects of past discrimination. For such a practice to be lawful under Title VII, it must be related to job performance or the employer must show that the requirement is a business necessity. As we observed in Local 189, United Papermakers and Paperworkers v. United States, 5 Cir. 1969, 416 F.2d 980, 989: 169 When an employer or union has discriminated in the past and when its present policies renew or exaggerate discriminatory effects, those policies must yield, unless there is an overriding legitimate, nonracial business purpose. 170 The company contends that the age limit is necessary to protect its investment in the lengthy apprenticeship training program. This justification, without more, cannot meet the burden imposed by the doctrine. The business necessity of a practice is not shown merely with evidence that it serves legitimate management functions. 171 Necessity connotes an irresistible demand. To be preserved, the seniority and transfer system must not only directly foster safety and efficiency of a plant, but also be essential to those goals. . . . If the legitimate ends of safety and efficiency can be served by a reasonably available alternative system with less discriminatory effects, then the present policies may not be continued. United States v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 2d Cir. 1971, 446 F.2d 652, 662 (1971). 172 United States v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 451 F.2d at 451. The thirty-year maximum age limit has not been shown to be essential to the goals of safety and efficiency. Any lesser showing is insufficient. There is nothing particularly compelling about the company's decision to protect its training investment when the employee is thirty. The unfairness becomes apparent when it is considered in view of Stockham's imposition of the age requirement on apprenticeship applicants in 1970, before beginning to admit blacks to the program and when no whites had ever been excluded on the basis of age. See EEOC Guideline 29 C.F.R. § 1607.11 (1974) and footnote 43. The plaintiffs are entitled to equitable relief from the continued application of this requirement. 51 5. Supervisory Discretion 173 The plaintiffs and the EEOC contend that the disproportionately small number of blacks selected for the apprenticeship program since 1971 is also caused by subjective, discretionary selection procedures. The evidence shows several critical facts. The foreman or superintendent of the department in which a craft vacancy occurs selects a candidate for the apprenticeship program; that recommendation is almost invariably followed by the apprenticeship committee, which makes the final selection. Supervisors in other departments may also recommend employees. There are no formal written guidelines for the selection decision. Only such general factors as desire and aptitude for the craft position are considered. Just five of 120 foremen and none of the 26 superintendents or six general foremen are black. Thus, the plaintiffs are complaining of a largely subjective selection process involving white supervisors. 52 This procedure presents a ready mechanism for discrimination. Rowe v. General Motors Corp., 457 F.2d at 359. Such subjective procedures when combined with statistical evidence on the grossly disproportionate number of blacks selected for the apprenticeship program since 1971; 53 the unvalidated testing, educational, and age requirements that adversely affect blacks and the continuation of segregated facilities and programs until 1974, make a conclusive showing of present discriminatory practices. In Pettway v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 494 F.2d at 239, this Court reached a similar determination: 174 The historical formal exclusion and the statistical and testimonial evidence demonstrating disproportionate exclusion of blacks by the testing and educational requirements, when combined with the continuing use of the high school education or its equivalent standard and the present age requirement and lengthy apprenticeship term, constitutes not merely a prima facie case, but conclusive proof of present effect from past discrimination. (Footnotes omitted.) 175 See also United States v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 451 F.2d at 442. We think that conclusion is equally applicable here.