Opinion ID: 475264
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Affirmative Action Plan

Text: 6 On November 1, 1977, the district court issued a judgment containing a plan of sweeping injunctive relief for the plaintiff class (hereinafter also referred to as the affirmative action plan or the plan). The plan was predicated on the findings of racial discrimination described in the August memorandum, and was adopted in order to overcome the effects of past discrimination and to adopt objective, racially nondiscriminatory standards for the City's hiring, training and promotion of its employees. The plan was a comprehensive program of affirmative action to assist black applicants and employees by specifying procedures and policies relating to hiring, training, promotions and transfers, and employee grievance resolution. 7 The plan contemplated that hiring be done in certain specified ways. A personnel consultant was to develop job descriptions and written training and evaluation procedures. The defendants were required to notify all blacks who had applied for jobs since 1968 that they had an opportunity to reapply. Written application forms were required, the recruiting of qualified blacks was encouraged, and all notices of position vacancies were to be posted. Most concretely, the plan required that subject to the availability of qualified black applicants, the City officials shall fill all entry positions on the basis of two blacks to be hired for every three whites in each department until such time as a ratio of black to white employees in such department shall approximate 36%, which corresponds to the percentage of the black working age (16-65) population in Grenada County, Mississippi.The plan foresaw new and more formalized training procedures. A training officer was to oversee the training of new employees in each department and agency according to a written training program. The plan required the city to send equal numbers of black and white employees to training sessions at outside institutions, and to alternate blacks and whites if only one employee at a time could attend. The black employees in the water and sanitation departments, who were historically limited to menial positions, were to receive certain special training to improve their opportunities for promotion. 8 Promotions and transfers were also affected by the plan. Promotions were to be made on the basis of the objective and nondiscriminatory qualifications listed in each job description. The plan also set goals for promotions. [S]ubject to the availability of qualified black incumbent employees, future promotions for the next two vacancies in each department shall be filled by qualified blacks who meet the prescribed job criteria. Thereafter, promotions were to be made without regard to race. Transfers between departments were permitted where no qualified incumbent department employees were available. Openings were to be posted at the office of the city clerk and the various departments, and if these notices were not effective, then to be published in the local newspapers. 9 A detailed grievance procedure was mandated to assist the implementation of the plan. Disputes concerning the terms or conditions of employment, including claims of discrimination, were to be resolved by the aggrieved employee presenting her complaint in turn to her supervisor, her department head, the city manager, and ultimately the city council before resort to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). At each level of the grievance procedure, strict time limits required the decisionmaker within the specified time to either answer the grievance (from which the employee could appeal) or permit the employee to appeal to the next level. Whenever a grievance was decided in favor of the employee, the award was to be retroactive, and any persons responsible for racially discriminatory practices were to be subject to disciplinary action. 10 Finally, the plan required that copies of the plan be published in pamphlet form and distributed to employees, applicants for employment, and interested citizens. The city was required to post on the bulletin board of each municipal department and agency a notice of its racially nondiscriminatory employment practices and opportunities for training and promotion as herein directed. The defendants were required to file semiannual reports until June 1981 concerning hiring, current employment, promotions, transfers, and training. The district court expressly retained jurisdiction to enforce, supplement, or clarify the terms of the plan. No appeal was taken from this judgment.