Opinion ID: 389939
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Numerical Scope of the Order

Text: 134 The district court arrived at 102 as the number of persons to be offered firefighter positions, by reference to two factors. First, having found the City in violation of Title VI dating back to January 1, 1971, the court chose the period beginning on that date as the time frame within which to count the nonminority firefighters who had been hired pursuant to the discriminatory exams. Second, the court ruled that the number of minority persons offered firefighter positions should be approximately 41% of the total number of firefighters hired during the relevant period. We conclude that the time frame must be modified, but that the percentage selected was not an abuse of the court's discretion. 135 In Part IV above we concluded that the district court's decision must be vacated insofar as it held that the City had violated Title VI. The Title VI violation found by the district court dated back to 1971. The City's violation of the Revenue Sharing Act found by the district court, and not contested here, dates back only to January 1, 1973. The City's violation of Title VII dates back only to March 24, 1972, when Title VII became applicable to the City. Hence, the earliest date on which the City was properly held to have discriminated unlawfully is March 24, 1972, and we conclude that the proper time frame for calculating the required number of minority offerees began in 1972. 29 136 The evidence of record reveals that since March 24, 1972, the City has hired a total of 109 nonminority firefighters. Consequently, whatever percentage is appropriate should relate to this figure, not to the 152 nonminority figure that dates back to 1971. If the 41% figure used by the district court is sustainable, the City will be required to offer firefighter positions to 73 minority persons i. e., the number which, when added to the three minority persons hired within the relevant period, would bring the total minority offerees (76) to approximately 41% of the total (185). 137 The district court's selection of the 41% figure, however, is somewhat problematical and if the affirmative relief ordered were of a different sort, we might be constrained to request clarification or reconsideration from the district court. Given the actual nature and effect of the order, however, we conclude that the use of this percentage was not an abuse of discretion. 138 The question arises initially from the ambiguity of the court's characterization of the 41% figure. The figure was described at the outset of the opinion as the percentage of minorities in the labor force in Bridgeport, see 479 F.Supp. at 105, and later as the percentage of minority individuals in Bridgeport's population, see id. at 115. 30 See also 454 F.Supp. at 757. Plaintiffs argue that the 41% figure does represent the 1975 percentage of minorities in the labor force, and that the City judicially admitted this fact. In fact the City did admit the components of this, 31 and it never asked the district court to relieve it of its admission, although on the remand after the first appeal to this Court it attempted to introduce new statistics into evidence; these apparently were intended to show that while the percentage of minority persons in the population was 41%, the percentage of minority persons in the labor force was substantially lower. On this appeal the City contends that the percentage of minority persons in the labor force in 1975 was 23%, a figure that plaintiffs contend is impossible. 32 Given the nature of the order in the present case, however, we need not reach the question whether the City may or should now be relieved of its judicial admission. 139 In cases in which the district court has fashioned a remedy that requires the defendant to achieve a specified percentage of minority representation in its overall membership or among all its employees, we have ruled that (s) tatistics as to the population of th(e) work force during the pertinent period should provide a more accurate base than total population statistics for determining what would have been the percentage of minority applicants hired absent the discrimination. Rios v. Enterprise Ass'n Steamfitters Local 638, supra, 501 F.2d at 632-33. In Rios, the district court had ordered the defendant union to admit minority workers in sufficient numbers to achieve a 30% minority membership. Because the provenance of the 30% figure was not clear, and could have represented population rather than labor force, we remanded to the district court for explanation or reconsideration. On the other hand, we have more recently envisioned that temporary goals that exceed the minority proportion of the labor force may be justified if the discrimination has been long-standing and effective: 140 Any use of a hiring ratio during the interim period to compensate for prior discrimination, that is, a ratio greater than the minority percentage in the applicant pool or the relevant work force, should be imposed only upon clear evidence and appropriate findings of the need to redress demonstrated prior discrimination of long standing that has had a significant impact on minority employment. 141