Opinion ID: 433073
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Disparate Impact of Educational Requirements

Text: 19 Nevertheless, although we find that the class plaintiffs have standing to raise the issue on appeal, we also find no error in the district court's holding that the educational requirements had no disparate impact on blacks. The issue was fully tried below and was decided in the consolidated suits adversely to the identical contentions of the private plaintiffs and of the United States. 20 In the United States' challenge in the trial court, the district court held that the educational requirements were not shown to produce a disparate impact upon minority applicants. Walls, supra, 542 F.Supp. at 310. Instead, the district court attributed the reduced number of blacks selected by the state Department to other practices having no relationship whatever to educational standards. Id. The court reasoned that the mere census data (now relied upon by the private plaintiffs) that indicated that fewer blacks than whites possess the challenged educational requirement 8 was not sufficient to show disparate impact absent the further showing that the disparity of blacks in the workforce was directly caused by the educational barrier and not by other factors. Id. 21 As this court recently held in Carpenter v. Stephen F. Austin State University, 706 F.2d 608, 623 (5th Cir.1983), on appellate review the standard we apply is whether the district court clearly erred in finding whether the plaintiff class established a prima facie factual case of adverse impact of the educational requirement and whether the defendant had successfully rebutted factually the plaintiff's case. In order to prove disparate impact in a Title VII class action, the plaintiff class must set forth discrete, facially neutral employment practices that operate more harshly on one group than another. See Griggs v. Duke Power Company, 401 U.S. 424, 431-33, 91 S.Ct. 849, 854, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971). See also Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321, 329, 97 S.Ct. 2720, 2726-27, 53 L.Ed.2d 786 (1977) (height and weight requirement). Once the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case, the burden is then upon the employer to prove that an employment practice which operates to exclude a protected class is related to job performance. Carpenter, supra, 706 F.2d at 621.
22 In Carpenter, the plaintiff class presented data showing that 47% of whites and 24.8% of blacks had high school degrees. See also Griggs, supra, 401 U.S. at 430 n. 6, 91 S.Ct. at 853 n. 6. The court then determined that the racial composition (80% white) of the employees in jobs requiring a high school diploma exhibited the harshly disproportionate impact of the requirement on blacks. Carpenter, supra, 706 F.2d at 622. The court rejected the University's bottom-line defense, i.e., because a large number of blacks survive the selection device, a requirement is not racially discriminatory. Id., citing Connecticut v. Teal, 457 U.S. 440, 102 S.Ct. 2525, 2533, 73 L.Ed.2d 130 (1982). Finally, the Carpenter court found that the employer had failed to present any specific evidence of job relatedness. 9 23 The Walls plaintiffs adequately established a prima facie case of discrimination. The educational requirement barred more blacks than whites from seeking employment with the state Department (see supra note 7). The racial composition of classified positions requiring the educational minimums was primarily white--in January 1973, when private plaintiffs filed their action, 32 of the state Department's 84 county offices did not employ a black, while 20 other county offices had a black employed only in the position of homemaker. Walls, supra, 542 F.Supp. at 290. The following table depicts the number and percentages of blacks and whites hired from 1972-75. 24 WELFARE DEPARTMENT HIRES IN CONTESTED CLASSES --------------------------------------------------------------- Total SWI EW CTI-III Years Total # % W % B % W % B % W % B % W % B ----------- -------- --------- -------- -------- --------- 1972, 1973 & 1975 1,291 90 10 92 8 90 10 91 9 1973 & 1975 943 89 11 90 10 88 12 90 10 25 This showing--that over 85% of the jobs requiring an educational minimum were held by whites--indicates (as it was also so found in Carpenter, supra, 706 F.2d at 608) the harshly disproportionate impact of the requirement on blacks.
26 However, unlike the defendant employer in Carpenter, who failed to present any specific evidence of job relatedness, the state defendants here did seek to justify the use of the requirements by presenting evidence at trial that the educational requirement bears a demonstrable relationship to successful performance of the jobs for which it was used. Griggs, supra, 401 U.S. at 431, 91 S.Ct. at 853. See Carpenter, supra, 706 F.2d at 622. The district court related the testimony of the Mississippi Civil Service Commissioner Cole as to why he felt the minimum prerequisites were necessary for successful job performance. Walls, supra, 542 F.Supp. 291-92. 27 Commissioner Cole testified as to the duties of the respective classifications and the job-related necessity for the minimum educational requirements: 28 Social Workers handle child neglect and abuse cases, as well as aid to adults, and are thus required to work closely with individuals involved in sensitive situations. Social Workers develop written plans and goals for their clients and must furnish written reports of their actions to supervisors. Cole expressed his strong belief that every Social Worker should have a college degree in order to perform these duties, so as to afford their welfare clients better treatment and more prompt service. (Social Workers are also required to understand and apply government regulations.) 29 Eligibility Workers interview and assist clients who apply for government assistance. Their duties require knowledge of various federal regulations and policies and alternative avenues of benefits. Eligibility Workers receive on-the-job training to acquaint them with the various procedures they must follow. In Cole's opinion, the present minimum education requirement for Eligibility Worker (two years of college credit) is probably inadequate due to the requirements of reading, understanding, and applying the complex federal regulations, as well as because of the interpersonal contact necessitated by the job. 30 Clerk/Typists function as receptionists and are required to fill out data cards on clients, transcribe interviews, and perform typing and filing duties. A high school diploma is a realistic minimum because the clerk must have a good English background and be a skilled typist. Moreover, the Clerk often is required to assume control of the office in the absence of a more superior employee. 31 The plaintiffs did not contradict the Commissioner's description or assessment of the work performed by these department employees. 32 Although we might have preferred more definitive evidence of job relatedness than the testimony of the Mississippi state officials at trial, we are unable to say that the district court was clearly erroneous in determining that the educational requirements were job-related and thus were not racially discriminatory, and that the sparsity of blacks in the contested positions was the result of other practices having no relationship to educational standards. II. Written Examinations A. Statutory Standing 33 The state defendants contend that the private plaintiffs lacked statutory standing under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e, et seq. to challenge the written examinations because the state's Merit System Council, which administered the tests, was not charged in the plaintiffs' complaint filed with the EEOC. In their initial EEOC charges, Walls and Gambrell named The Department of Public Welfare, W Market Street, Greenwood, Miss. or The Department of Public Welfare, listing a Greenwood address, as the party responsible for disparate treatment in selections from certificates of eligibles. The state defendants also argue that because the examinations were not the subject of the EEOC charges, the plaintiffs failed to comply with the statutory prerequisite for a federal court action. 10 34 Citing General Building Contractors Association v. Pennsylvania, 458 U.S. 375, 380, n. 4, 102 S.Ct. 3141, 3144, n. 4, 73 L.Ed.2d 835 (1982),--where the Court had observed in passing that an aggrieved employee had sued only the union and a joint apprenticeship committee but had not joined the employer in its Title VII complaint because it had not filed an EEOC charge against the employer--the state Department apparently contends that the failure to join the state Department and its Merit System Council rather than (as construed by this defendant) only a local branch is a jurisdictional bar to the private plaintiffs' suit against the state defendants, the Department and its Merit System Council, a division thereof (see note 1 supra ). 35 We do not read the EEOC charges as narrowly as does the state Department. We think the complaint, liberally construed as required, was to hiring practices of the entire state agency (including its Merit System Council), not just the local Greenwood office. See Jackson v. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company, 678 F.2d 992, 1010 (11th Cir.1982) (only union local, not national union sued, named in the EEOC charge). 11 Further, despite the Department's argument that the initial EEOC charges did not implicate charges of discrimination with regard to the examination itself rather than (as argued) only the selections from the certificates of eligibles, we are unable to read the substance of the charges so narrowly. 12 36 Moreover, this circuit has held that a Title VII suit may be based, not only upon the specific allegations in the employee's initial charge, but also upon any kind of discrimination like or related to the charge's allegations, limited only by the scope of the EEOC investigation that could reasonably be expected to grow out of the initial charges of discrimination. Fellows v. Universal Restaurants, Inc., 701 F.2d at 447, 451 (5th Cir.1983). In this case, the EEOC determined after investigation of the two charges that there was reasonable cause to believe that the Mississippi State Department of Public Welfare had engaged in unlawful employment practices. (Exhibit P-125.) The determination specifically stated that, following the charges, it had investigated complaints of discrimination against blacks because of their race with respect to recruitment, hiring, and other discriminatory practices, and it included a summary of the Department's general employment procedures, such as a description of the selection process from registers of eligibles provided by the Merit System Council, the use of unvalidated pen and pencil tests that had disproportionately affected blacks adversely in eligibility for the registers, and the disproportionate subjective choice by the county directors of whites over blacks with equivalent or higher scores. The determination stated that the EEOC had secured from the state Department, specifically named as respondent to the charges, documentary evidence relating to its hiring and employment policies and practices, and that, additionally, an EEOC investigator had secured statements from various of Respondent's county directors. 37 Under the settled jurisprudence of this court, the liberally construed initial discrimination charges to the EEOC specifically implicated the state Department (including its Merit System Council division) and reasonably implicated the state Department's entire initial selection process (including testing and subjective selection from the certificates of eligibles) as within the scope of the EEOC investigation that could reasonably be expected to grow out of the initial charges of discrimination. Fellows, supra, 701 F.2d at 451-53; Terrell v. United States Pipe & Foundry Co., 644 F.2d 1112, 1123-24 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 972, 102 S.Ct. 2234, 72 L.Ed.2d 845 (1982); Tillman v. City of Boaz, 548 F.2d 592, 592 (5th Cir.1977). We thus find no merit to the state Department's contention that the private plaintiffs lacked statutory standing. B. Constitutional Standing 38 The state Department contends that, with regard to the alleged misuse of the unvalidated examinations, the private plaintiffs lack Article III case-or-controversy standing because they themselves are not threatened with actual injury and have no personal stake in the litigation. See O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 494, 94 S.Ct. 669, 674, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974). The Department points out that Walls and Gambrell, who filed the EEOC charges, had passed the examination in October 1971, prior to the date (March 24, 1972) that Title VII was made applicable to the States. Although the test results are used to determine eligibility for two years from their date of score, the state Department argues that this continuing effect does not constitute a present violation, being rather only a present non-actionable effect of a past illegal act. Delaware State College v. Ricks, 449 U.S. 250, 258, 101 S.Ct. 498, 504, 66 L.Ed.2d 431 (1980). 39 The plaintiffs argue that they were adversely affected by the continuous use of the allegedly invalid test results, since their ranking by these tests was determined in certificates of eligibility for vacancies after March 24, 1972 (the date the Title VII applied to the States), and thus both their eligibility for consideration and their ranking on the eligibility certificates was continuously affected by the 1971 tests as to vacancies occurring in 1972 and 1973. 40 Two decisions of other circuits cited to us are possibly divided on the viability of the continuing violation theory of standing as applied to the use of eligibility lists subsequent to the administration of an examination, although perhaps they may be reconciled in the light of the specific issues presented therein. The Third Circuit has held that the use of [an] eligibility roster does not constitute a continuing violation. Bronze Shields, Inc. v. New Jersey Department of Civil Services, 667 F.2d 1074, 1082 (3rd Cir.1981), cert. denied, 458 U.S. 1122, 102 S.Ct. 3510, 73 L.Ed.2d 1384 (1982) (where, however, the court held that the only act charged was the time-barred promulgation of the eligibility list, followed by its non-discriminatory use thereafter, 677 F.2d at 1084). The Second Circuit, conversely, maintains that the results of the tests were in effect being 'used to discriminate,' in direct contravention of Sec. 703(h) of Title VII, each time a member of the plaintiff class was denied a chance to fill a vacancy. Guardian Association of New York City v. Civil Service Commission of the City of New York, 633 F.2d 232, 249 (2nd Cir.1980), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 3568, 77 L.Ed.2d 1410 (1983) (where not the compilation of the list, but the wrongful denial of employment based thereupon was charged). 41 The district court found that the ranking, which was based upon performance on the written examinations, resulted in adverse consequences after March 24, 1972. Walls, supra, 542 F.Supp. at 311. Both plaintiffs Walls and Gambrell appeared on a certificate of eligibles in August 1972 and were denied employment in favor of a white person whose name appeared at the top of the register. Id. The examination determined the plaintiffs' ranking, which ranking was a material factor in the subjective selection process employed by the state Department. The district court did not err in finding that, because of the adverse consequences suffered by the plaintiffs in 1972 and thereafter as a result of the 1971 examination, they had constitutional standing to challenge the discriminatory impact of the written examinations.