Opinion ID: 313659
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Seniority Rights

Text: 42 At issue here are the seniority rights of three men: Bing, Melson, and Johnson. The Government contends that this issue properly includes the seniority rights of the entire class and all its affected unnamed members, but we believe the trial court's notice to all class members bars here all those who did not respond within the specified time period. The trial court allowed only Bing and the nine others who responded to the notice to raise their claims below, and those are the only claims before us on appeal. The trial court found, and we agree, that five of the employees were not entitled to road driving jobs because they were not qualified. 8 Naturally their seniority rights are not in issue. Two of the men awarded road jobs, Hicks and Stroud, soon returned to their city driving jobs; therefore their seniority rights as road drivers are not in issue here. 43 The court in the instant case recognized correctly that the proper goal was to give transferees the bargaining unit seniority rights they would have enjoyed but for Roadway's discrimination. Accordingly the court chose the date when the transferees applied to become road drivers. That formulation was reasonably favorable to Bing, for the court chose April 11, 1966, as his application date. The others, however, applied in response to the January 1972 court-ordered notice, so their seniority rights are minimal. The court was more generous in regard to vacations and other fringe benefits, allowing the transferees to keep their company seniority for those purposes. 44 The Government, as amicus, argues that the trial court should have allowed full seniority carryover for the transferees. That would mean the transferees could use their company seniority for all purposes-fringe benefits, layoff rights, and job bidding. The Government argues that anything less than full carryover will inhibit transfers by decreasing job security and will place black transferees forever behind their white contemporaries in competition for future vacancies in their new OTR classification. That contention outrages the union, which sees it as an attempt to reform its collective bargaining agreement by eroding the departmental seniority system, a drastic step that never was requested by Bing or other class members. 9 Drastic step or not, we will not hesitate to reform a collective bargaining agreement that produces a discriminatory effect violating Title VII. 45 While Roadway's no-transfer rule was in effect, blacks were effectively barred from entering the bargaining unit occupied by drivers. Now that the rule has been abolished by court order they may transfer to the road driving unit if they are qualified, but that unit's collective bargaining agreement requires that their job (or unit) seniority date from their entry into the unit. Job seniority controls such important areas as job bidding and layoff rights. Consequently, the most recent arrivals in the unit enjoy the least job security and the poorest upward mobility. Negroes who can now become road drivers, but who were qualified long ago and were blocked only because of the no-transfer rule, would be the most junior men in the unit if and when they transferred. It is possible that if Roadway's policy had not been discriminatory, today's transferees may have transferred long ago and have built up years of seniority. Therefore we will not hesitate to boost the seniority of discriminatees in order to make them whole. 10 It is not enough that this departmental seniority system is racially neutral on its face; like the no-transfer rule, it preserves the effects of Roadway's discontinued discriminatory hiring policies, and thus violates Title VII. This court has said: 46 It is not decisive therefore that a seniority system may appear neutral on its face if the inevitable effect of tying the system to the past is to cut into the employees present right not to be discriminated against on the ground of race. The crux of the problem is how far the employer must go to undo the effect of past discrimination. Local 189, United Papermakers and Paperworkers v. United States, 5th Cir. 1969, 416 F.2d 980, 988, cert. denied 1970, 397 U.S. 919, 90 S.Ct. 926, 25 L.Ed.2d 100 (Wisdom, J.). 47 See United States v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 5th Cir. 1971, 451 F.2d 418, cert. denied 1972, 406 U.S. 906, 92 S.Ct. 1607, 31 L.Ed.2d 815. Note, 80 Harv.L. Rev. 1260, 1967. Nevertheless we choose not to adopt the Government's position. 48 We believe the wisest course lies between those advocated by the Government and the trial court. We will follow the rightful place theory adopted by this Circuit in Local 189, United Papermakers and Paperworkers v. United States, 5th Cir. 1969, 416 F.2d 980. Under that theory blacks are assured the first opportunity to move into the next vacancies in positions which they would have occupied but for wrongful discrimination and which they are qualified to fill. United States v. Georgia Power Co., 5th Cir. 1973, 474 F.2d 906. Thus blacks confined by discrimination to certain positions must be given the opportunity to transfer into the formerly white positions as vacancies occur in order to assume their rightful place. A complete decree must give enough relief to insure that the transferred discriminatees are able to maintain their rightful place. Thus the rightful place theory dictates that we give the transferring discriminatee sufficient seniority carryover to permit the advancement he would have enjoyed, and to give him the protection against layoffs he would have had, in the absence of discrimination. How much seniority the transferee deserves should be determined by the date he would have transferred but for his employer's discrimination. 11 49 Under the rightful place theory the Government's position is unsound. As amicus it would have us date seniority from the transferees' entry into Roadway employment regardless of their qualifications upon arrival at Roadway. That approach applied as a general rule could operate to give transferees more seniority than they would have had in the absence of discrimination. In this case, for example, until 1970 Roadway required prospective road drivers to have one year of road driving experience, and in 1970 it altered the requirement by allowing city driving experience to substitute for road driving experience. If the transferees were not qualified to become road drivers until they had worked for Roadway at least one year, their job seniority should not antedate the first anniversary of their arrival at Roadway. Before that date discrimination could not have blocked their employment as road drivers. 50 The trial court, taking a position endorsed by the union, would measure job seniority from the date when the transferee first applied for a road driving position. The rationale underlying this position is that we cannot determine if discrimination has occurred until an employee attempts to transfer. Since our goal is to put him in the position he would have enjoyed but for discrimination we must know when the discrimination occurred. 51 We recognize the logic of that argument, but it fails to account for the realties of entrenched employment discrimination. If an employee realizes full well that blacks simply are not hired as road drivers, why should he bother to apply? Certainly a few, such as Bing, have the courage to fight the system, but it is equally certain that others must have been intimidated and discouraged by Roadway's discriminatory practices. For that reason we believe it is an unsound policy to date transferees' job seniority from their first application for transfer. 52 We choose instead to modify the Government's company seniority proposal and date the transferees' road unit seniority from the date they possessed the experience necessary to qualify them to enter the road driving unit. 12 Bing met Roadway's OTR experience requirements when he first reported to work on April 2, 1964. We recognize that Bing's hire date antedates the Act's effective date. However, as applied to Bing the union's job seniority rule preserves the present effects of past discrimination and thus violates the Act. Since that rule violates the Act we must suspend its operation as to Bing, leaving his company seniority as the proper criterion for determining his employment rights. See Local 189, United Papermakers & Paperworkers v. United States, 5th Cir. 1969, 416 F.2d 980; Quarles v. Philip Morris, Inc., E.D.Va.1963, 279 F.Supp. 505. 53 An intervening factor prevents our giving the other two transferees, Melson and Johnson, job seniority from the date they were qualified to become road drivers. Both had had previous road driving experience when they went to work for Roadway as city drivers, and therefore they were qualified by Roadway's standards to become road drivers. Melson went to work on April 7, 1969, and Johnson was hired on July 13, 1970. From October 18, 1968 to April 1972, Roadway hired no new road drivers in Atlanta, and in August 1969 it began laying off road drivers. Melson and Johnson were among the first road drivers to be hired following the layoff period. Even without racial discrimination, Melson and Johnson would not have been hired as road drivers during this period. Therefore we cannot say they are entitled to job seniority dating from their qualification date, which in this case is their date of entry into the company. Under the rightful place theory we conclude that the trial court correctly awarded them seniority dating from their application for road positions, but only because the application date marks the earliest opportunity following their qualification dates at which any applicant could have been hired as a road driver. We disapprove an application date test standing alone. 54 The Government contended that anything less than full seniority carryover for all blacks seeking road driving jobs would discourage black transfers and place the black transferees forever behind their white contemporaries in the road unit. We emphasize that only those incumbent blacks who might have lost an opportunity to become road drivers because of Roadway discrimination are in need of augmented seniority. Roadway's present hiring and transfer policies, and the union's seniority system, treat new employees impartially. The court-ordered notice to all black Roadway employees brought forth some whom discrimination had prevented from becoming road drivers, and our decree gives them the seniority they would have had but for discrimination. Qualified newcomers are free to apply, and if accepted they will get the same seniority rights (date of entry into the unit) as the white applicants. In short, incumbents who have suffered discrimination will be accorded seniority in accordance with their rightful place in the absence of discrimination, and all future applicants' job seniority will date from their date of entry into the road unit.