Opinion ID: 515997
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Impact of the CPP on Older Inspectors

Text: 22 The central element of the district court's disparate impact holding was its decision to focus solely on the senior-first aspect of the CPP, and to exclude from consideration those postal inspectors who were transferred under the two complementary aspects of the program. The court explained: 23 Plaintiffs, however, have made it clear since this lawsuit was filed that they challenge the discriminatory senior-first rule of the Career Path Policy. It is defendant who has tried to mischaracterize plaintiffs' challenge to encompass the entire Career Path Policy in order to dilute the adverse impact that the senior-first rule has on plaintiffs. Plaintiffs have never challenged the aspects of the Policy permitting postal inspectors to volunteer for lateral reassignment. 24 Arnold II, 667 F.Supp. at 19-20 (citations omitted). 25 By so limiting the scope of its scrutiny, the district court effectively determined the outcome of the case. Appellant does not dispute the district court's finding that the senior-first transfer rule, considered alone, had a disproportionate impact on individuals over forty. Instead, appellant argues that the impact of the CPP must be viewed in all its facets, including the voluntary transfer provisions. Considered in this light, appellant contends that the CPP did not have a disparate impact on the protected class. According to statistics presented by appellant's expert, inspectors aged forty and above constituted 34.4 percent of all level 23 inspectors eligible for transfer into an MMA, and constituted 33.8 percent of all inspectors actually transferred, either voluntarily or involuntarily. App. at 101, 113. These statistics illustrate the distortions that will result if an analysis of the CPP's impact is limited to just one of its elements. 26 Appellees argue that the narrow focus adopted by the district court is mandated by Connecticut v. Teal, 457 U.S. 440, 102 S.Ct. 2525, 73 L.Ed.2d 130 (1982). That case involved a Connecticut state agency's requirement that candidates for the position of Welfare Eligibility Supervisor pass a written examination that was not shown to be job related. The Court held that because a disproportionate number of blacks had failed the test, it could not be used even though more than a proportionate number of blacks had actually been promoted to that position as a result of the agency's application of an affirmative action program. The Court wrote that such a focus on the bottom line is improper because Title VII protects individual employees. Id. at 455, 102 S.Ct. at 2534-35. The employer could not use the non-discriminatory later stages of the promotion process to temper the effects of the written examination at the first stage, because those who failed the examination never received consideration at the later stages. 27 We think that Teal is inapposite, and we agree with appellant that the district court erred by focusing solely on the senior-first rule. The central distinction between Teal and the current case is that, unlike the pass-fail test at issue in Teal, the senior-first rule was not a free-standing element of an employment program. Under the CPP, every level 23 employee was expected to spend five years in an MMA. Thus each level 23 employee can fulfill this uniform service requirement through either an early voluntary or a later involuntary transfer. Those individuals who are subject to involuntary transfers, and protected by the ADEA, were not excluded from the voluntary transfer stage. While the impact of an unfair test on the individual plaintiffs in Teal has nothing to do with the fact that other blacks were ultimately promoted, the impact of the CPP on senior postal inspectors can be fairly measured only by taking into account those who, subject to an identical obligation, elected to fulfill their responsibility by volunteering for transfer. Our decision to view the CPP transfer plan as a whole does not involve using the non-discriminatory effects of voluntary transfers to answer the complaint of one who did not have the opportunity to undertake such a transfer. Rather it reflects a realistic assessment of the transfer options available alike to each and every level 23 employee. 28 Because the district court failed to consider the impact of the senior-first transfer rule within the context of the CPP as a whole, its finding that that rule had a disparate impact on older employees is legally irrelevant. This is so because the court based its factual finding on an erroneous understanding of the perspective appropriate to a disparate impact analysis in this case, assuming such an analysis is applicable to ADEA cases. Thus notwithstanding the court's contrary finding, we conclude that appellees failed to establish that the CPP, taken as a whole, had a disparate impact on older postal inspectors.