Opinion ID: 389263
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Train Porters

Text: 46 The district court held that all members of this (porter) subclass are presumptively entitled to accrue brakeman's seniority and pay as of July 2, 1965, the effective date of the Act. 12 The court set the following formula to be used in figuring UTU's liability for back pay due each porter: 47 1) Determine the average compensation paid a white brakeman with seniority as of July 2, 1965, until the date the plaintiff could no longer work. 48 2) Subtract the actual compensation paid the class member. 49 3) Subtract the amount received by the class member from the Santa Fe settlement. 50 4) Add interest at the legal rate from July 2, 1965. 51 Order of October 23, 1978, at 9. 52 Plaintiffs assert that damages for this subclass should be computed using the average wages earned by a brakeman with sixteen to seventeen years of experience rather than being based on a brakeman with a seniority date of July 2, 1965. The trial court rejected that argument on the grounds that it would constitute an award retroactive to the Act. UTU attacks the use of the average brakeman's salary in the award formula, arguing that the inclusion of the freight brakeman salary in the average is improper because porters did not perform freight work. The district court included the salary of freight brakemen in the formula becauseit would be difficult to determine at this late date what each subclass members (sic) would have done in terms of making bids for positions. The chain of events cannot be reconstructed. By using averages, those high-paying and low-pay positions will be combined We think these class members are entitled to presume that there would have been opportunities for them to bid their seniority the same as white brakemen with similar seniority. 53 Order of October 23, 1978, at 8. 54 Under Title VII the trial court has wide discretion in fashioning remedies to make victims of discrimination whole. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 421, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2373, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975); United States v. Lee Way Motor Freight, Inc., 625 F.2d 918, 949 (10th Cir. 1979). This Court will vary the district court award only when that court has abused its discretion. Stone v. D. A. & S. Oil Well Servicing, Inc., 624 F.2d 142, 144 (10th Cir. 1980). Clearly back pay and seniority are suitable remedies well within the broad discretion of the trial court. 55 Nevertheless, we hold the trial court was incorrect in its belief that to grant back pay as if the porters had pre-Act seniority would violate the Act. The remedy fashioned by the court should represent a reasonable attempt to restore the victims of discrimination to a position where they would have been absent the unlawful impact of the seniority system. See Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 421, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2373, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975). If the court, in its attempt to carry out the make whole purposes of the act, assumes that a typical employee might have bid freight service as well as passenger service, we think it should also consider such an employee's typical length of service with Santa Fe in formulating an award. Such a formulation does not seem to us to constitute an award of seniority. An award of actual seniority is not an issue as to this subclass, because the last train porter working for the Santa Fe retired in 1975. Stipulation $ 40. See Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 354-55, 97 S.Ct. at 1864-65. Recognition of the length of service of the employees in this subclass would merely reflect the level of pay they would have received absent discrimination. Moreover, no fictional seniority is involved; these are employees of Santa Fe who have done braking work for many years. Alternatively, in this situation a way of making the discriminatees whole would be to limit the comparison to the wages of brakemen who performed only passenger work, as that is the work actually done by these porters. With this concept of equal pay for equal work, seniority would not be a factor. 56 Although we recognize most passenger train brakemen have considerable seniority, as did these porters, we will not dictate to the trial court which alternative to choose. The court of appeals' duty is to require a consistent and principled application of the back pay provision, consonant with the twin statutory objectives (to eradicate discrimination and make sufferors whole), while at the same time recognizing that the trial court will often have the keener appreciation of those facts and circumstances peculiar to particular cases. Id. 422 U.S. at 421-22, 95 S.Ct. at 2373-74.