Opinion ID: 347588
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Selection of Supervisors

Text: 176 The plaintiffs and the EEOC contend that the district court's conclusion that the company did not discriminate in the selection of supervisors is clearly erroneous. In support of this contention they point to (1) the statistical evidence of a gross disparity between the number of blacks working in supervisory positions at Stockham and the number of black production and maintenance employees, and (2) the subjective selection procedures. 177 The evidence shows that there were no black supervisors at Stockham until May 1971. In 1973 of 120 foremen only 5 were black. There were no blacks of 26 superintendents and 6 general foremen. A majority of supervisors are selected from hourly employees of whom two-thirds are black. Some are chosen directly from the hourly work force and others are selected from the company's personnel development program (PDP), which trains employees for supervisory positions. 178 According to Jack Marsh, the production manager at Stockham, the principal criterion for selecting an hourly employee as a supervisor is the best man for the job. He stated that such other qualifications as desire to be a foreman, work record, knowledge of the job, training, physical fitness, and common sense are also considered. 179 There are no formal, written guidelines for the selection process. The superintendent of a department having a vacancy in the supervisory staff selects candidates for the job and consults with the production manager in making the decision. The supervisors and the production manager are all white. As for the PDP, final selection of participants is made by incumbent foremen and superintendents. There are no formal, written guidelines for the selection procedure. 180 In Rowe v. General Motors Corp., 457 F.2d at 358-59, this Court concluded that an employer's promotion and transfer procedures violated Title VII. We held that five aspects of the selection process, when taken together, had a discriminatory effect on black employees: (a) the foremen's recommendation was the single most important factor in the promotion process; (b) foremen were given no written instructions pertaining to the qualifications necessary for promotion; (c) controlling standards were vague and subjective; (d) hourly employees were not notified of promotion opportunities or of the qualifications necessary to get jobs; and (e) there were no safeguards in the procedure designed to avert discriminatory practices. 181 Stockham's system for selecting supervisors is basically the same as the system condemned in Rowe. First, incumbent foremen and superintendents play a critical role in the selection of new members of the supervisory staff and PDP participants. This role is even greater than the one criticized in Watkins where we also applied the five Rowe factors. See Watkins v. Scott Paper Co., 530 F.2d at 1193. Second, the recommendations of incumbent supervisors are largely discretionary and there are no adequate safeguards against racial bias. Third, there are not written guidelines specifying the necessary qualifications of a supervisor for either the direct selection process or the PDP. Fourth, as found in Watkins, some of Stockham's criteria for promotion can be described only as subjective. Certainly the primary one, best man, has no objective elements. Fifth, there is no systematic procedure at Stockham for informing employees of supervisory vacancies. There has never been a system of job posting for any kind of vacancies at Stockham despite union demands that the procedure be implemented. The district court apparently considered the timely application procedure an adequate alternative. We do not. First, the useless act or meaningless request phenomenon discussed above 54 impedes the procedure's effectiveness. See Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 368, 97 S.Ct. 1843; Bing v. Roadway Express, Inc., 485 F.2d at 451. Moreover, of 75 employees selected as foremen since 1965, only two filed timely applications. The company itself does not take the procedure seriously. 182 The district court excused the grossly disproportionate number of black supervisors on the notion that there has been a low turnover in such positions since 1965. 394 F.Supp. at 478, 496. On the contrary, the evidence shows that over 63 percent of the present foremen were selected after 1965. We have concluded that Stockham's supervisory selection procedure is discriminatory, in part, because of the grossly disproportionate number of black supervisors and the similarities between the discretionary, subjective selection procedure at Stockham and the system condemned in Rowe. The district court's contrary findings are clearly erroneous. 183 The plaintiffs also challenge the process by which participants in the management training program (MTP), and its predecessor organizational apprentice program (OAP), are selected. These programs were designed to train college graduates in technical fields for upper level management positions. The defendant recruits participants from largely all-white universities such as Auburn University, the University of Alabama, the University of Tennessee, Georgia Institute of Technology and Samford University. Stockham has never recruited at the six or more predominantly black institutions in the area. No black has ever been selected for this program although fifty whites have been chosen since 1969. 184 In United States v. Georgia Power Co., 5 Cir. 1973, 474 F.2d 906 at 926, this Court condemned the concentration of a company's recruitment activities at white educational institutions: 185 The company's policy of seeking skilled personnel only at white educational institutions is similarly an invidious brake on black employment opportunities for which no business necessity justification was shown. While the company obviously ought not be enjoined to recruit on all college campuses unless it chooses to do so, it also ought not be allowed to continue to restrict its recruitment programs to all or preponderantly all white institutions while maintaining such a racially imbalanced work force. 186 We have reached the same conclusions here in deciding that Stockham's recruitment system for the MTP and its predecessor, the OAP, operates as a built-in-headwind against blacks. Id. at 925.