Opinion ID: 3046987
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Gary Little

Text: Little also alleged a violation of Title VII. It is undisputed that Little established a prima facie case of employment discrimination: he is African American; he was qualified for the Food Services Supervisor position; and Jane McNeill, a white woman, was selected for the position over him. TPH argues that it had a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for hiring McNeill over Little, based on McNeill’s seniority and the fact that McNeill, a Food Service Supervisor at another location within the same organizational unit, was requesting a lateral reassignment into the TPH job. Under the CWA collective 6 bargaining agreement, a permanent employee who has seniority must receive preference for reassignment. McNeill had been in the position for 15 years, and therefore had seniority over the candidates on the list of eligibles, none of whom were permanent employees in the same job title. McNeill, as a permanent employee within the title of Food Services Supervisor, was senior to Little, who was permanent in the title of Institutional Trade Instructor. Little claims that because he was a disabled veteran and ranked first on the certification list, it was unlawful for TPH to “bypass” him. He cites the civil service law’s “rule of three” that authorizes an employer to appoint one of the top three eligibles from the list, as well as the statute that says that a “regular appointment shall be made from among those eligibles.” N.J. Admin. Code § 4A-4.8(a); N.J. Stat. Ann. § 11A: 4-8. Little’s argument does not refute TPH’s legitimate reason for hiring McNeill. McNeill’s appointment to the position at TPH was not a “regular appointment” but rather a reassignment of a permanent employee within the same job title, from one location to another. Courts in this Circuit have held that seniority provisions in collective bargaining agreements can provide legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for employer action. See, e.g., Mills v. Phila. Gas Works, No. 06-2444, 2007 WL 2071881, at  (E.D. Pa. Jul. 19, 2007) (“[The plaintiff] has not produced evidence, direct or indirect, that the selected employees were given preferential treatment, other than on the basis of seniority . . . . 7 There is no evidence in the record from which one can infer that those employees were selected on the basis of their race or that Mills was rejected on the basis of his race.”) Moreover, even absent the seniority provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, it is clear that transfers such as McNeill’s are treated differently from new appointments under New Jersey law. The New Jersey Administrative Code section dealing with intergovernmental transfers notes that “the existence of an open competitive or promotional list in the receiving jurisdiction shall not be a bar to the transfer.” N.J. Admin. Code § 4-7.1A(c)(1). The next section of the code says that reassignments shall be made at the discretion of the head of the organizational unit. Id. § 4-7.2. The Administrative Code enables the transfer and reassignment of permanent employees to new locations, whether or not there is a certification list for the position. The District Court found that Little did not refute TPH’s legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for hiring McNeill over him. We agree.