Opinion ID: 398814
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Promotion Evidence

Text: 29 The appellant also introduced two series of exhibits focusing on the allocation of promotions within Prudential's work force. One series of exhibits revealed that, with few exceptions, in each year from 1973 to 1975 the percentage of black employees receiving promotions to supervisory and managerial positions, levels 10 through 84, was less than the percentage of blacks in Prudential's work force. The other series of exhibits showed that, with one exception in 1975, when comparing, by race, employees promoted to levels 5 through 12 in the years from 1973 to 1977, black employees had a greater mean number of years of service with Prudential than white employees. The district judge was persuaded by neither of the appellant's series of exhibits that Prudential discriminated against its black employees in awarding promotions. 11 499 F.Supp. at 455. We agree with the district judge that the appellant's promotional evidence does not demonstrate that Prudential has discriminated impermissibly against its black employees. 30 The series of exhibits that show the percentage of employees, by race, promoted to managerial and supervisory positions at Prudential in each year were prepared simply. The number of promotions to each level, from level 10 to level 82, for each year from 1973 to 1975, were tallied. Then, each sum was analyzed to determine the number of white employees and the number of black employees receiving a promotion to that level that year. Percentages of white employees and black employees were then calculated. 31 Although the percentage of black employees that had received promotions to levels 10 through 82 generally is far less than the percentage of black employees in Prudential's work force, we refuse to infer that Prudential treated its black employees less favorably in awarding promotions. The appellant's argument that this evidence demonstrated that Prudential discriminated against its black employees in promotions says nothing of the required comparison to a qualified pool of employees presumptively eligible for promotion. See Wilkins, 654 F.2d at 401. Instead, the appellant makes the baseless assumption that all employees are equally qualified for all positions-an assumption specifically rejected by the district judge as not supported by the evidence. 499 F.Supp. at 454. 32 The appellant's other series of exhibits on promotions at Prudential was prepared by finding the sum of the number of years of service at Prudential for each employee, by race, promoted to each level, 5 through 12, at the time of promotion. These sums were then divided by the number of employees, by race, promoted to the different levels. The resulting statistic-the mean number of years of service at Prudential for employees, by race, at each level-indicated that, with one exception, black employees were employed by Prudential longer than white employees before being promoted to each level. 33 Like the district judge, we refuse to infer from this presentation that Prudential's black employees are disfavored in promotions. 34 (T)his exhibit does not reflect the level of hire of the employees whose promotion rates are compared. Such an omission could result in misinterpretation of data. As an example, (the exhibit) indicates that Blacks averaged 7.16 years of service prior to promotion (to level 9 in 1975). But if these same white employees had been college hires (hired in at level 8) and had taken an average of 5.8 years to advance one level, and the black employees had been entry level hires (level 2) and had required an average of 7.16 years to advance 7 levels, the same data would indicate that Blacks actually enjoyed a more rapid rate of advancement than Whites. 35 Thus, as defendant's expert testified and as these contrasting results demonstrate, no conclusions can be drawn from such an analysis of years prior to promotion, without more, because its results cannot be attributed to any one cause-in this instance, it cannot be determined whether a certain number of years prior to promotion results from the relative level of hire or rate of promotion. 36 499 F.Supp. at 455 (footnotes omitted). We previously have suggested that the mean length of time between promotions may be relevant in proving discrimination. Wilkins, 654 F.2d at 402. But that was not proved in this case. The appellant's evidence on promotions did not establish that Prudential's black employees were the victims of disparate treatment. 12