Court Opinion

ID: 9475531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:30:06.665797+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:46.009362
License: Public Domain

JAMES HUNTER, III, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I join my colleagues in their enthusiastic support of our Reserves and National Guard. I cannot, however, join them in their interpretation of § 2021(b)(3) or in their treatment of the Supreme Court’s decision in Monroe v. Standard Oil Co., 452 U.S. 549, 101 S.Ct. 2510, 69 L.Ed.2d 226 (1981). Accordingly, I dissent.
I.
Monroe makes it clear that § 2021(b)(3) is addressed only to those benefits or incidents of employment which affect an employee’s long-term status as an employee or which an employee accrues over the long-term. Section 2021(b)(3) simply does not apply to benefits, such as holiday pay, which constitute isolated specific purpose compensation. Indeed, the main point of contention between the dissent and the majority in Monroe was whether § 2021(b)(3) has the broad coverage which my colleagues argue for or whether § 2021(b)(3) only covers long-term concerns such as opportunities for promotions and raises, protection from demotion or discharge, etc. See Monroe, 452 U.S. at 567, 101 S.Ct. at 2520 (dissenting opinion). The majority concluded that the latter states the correct rule. After a thorough review of the legislative history, the Court decided “that § 2021(b)(3) was enacted for the significant but limited purpose of protecting the employee-reservist against discriminations like discharge and demotion, motivated solely by reserve status.” Id. at 559, 101 S.Ct. at 2516 (majority opinion); and see id. at 562, 101 S.Ct. at 2518.
Today, the majority re-hoists the tattered banner of the Monroe dissenters. It is, of course, our duty to apply the law as interpreted by a majority of the Supreme Court. The Court has ruled that § 2021(b)(3) only applies to a limited category of employment benefits. Holiday pay is a specific form of compensation that one normally receives only in exchange for actual presence on the job during the week in which the holiday falls. Denial of holiday pay is not a “discrimination like discharge or demotion.” It, therefore, does not come within § 2021(b)(3)’s ambit.
II.
Part I of the majority opinion refers to four pre-Monroe lower court cases that interpreted § 2021(b)(3). The first of these cases, Carlson v. New Hampshire Dept, of Safety, 609 F.2d 1024 (1st Cir.1979), involved a state trooper who was permanently banished to a less desirable job assignment because of his reserve obligations. Because Carlson dealt with an incident of employment which affected the plaintiff's long-term status as an employee, it is distinguished from the present case and fully consistent with the Monroe opinion. In the other three cases relied upon by the majority, the courts based their opinions on the erroneous notion that § 2021(b)(3) requires employers to treat absent reservists as if they had remained at work. See West v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 609 F.2d 147, 150 (5th Cir.1980); Carney v. Cummins Engine Co., 602 F.2d 763, 767 n. 4 (7th Cir. 1979); Kidder v. Eastern Air Lines, 469 F.Supp. 1060, 1066 (S.D.Fla.1978). The Supreme Court has explicitly and emphatically rejected this notion. See Monroe, 452 U.S. at 563,101 S.Ct. at 2518 (“And certainly there is nothing in the legislative history that would indicate Congress intended that reservists were to be entitled to all ‘incidents and advantages of employment’ accorded during their absence to working employees ____”). Thus, the cases cited by the majority rather than supporting today’s decision — instead, reveal the fact that today’s decision ignores the teachings of Monroe.
The majority invokes three “returning veteran” cases. These cases are simply not apposite. The statutory provisions protecting returning veterans require an employer to treat a returning veteran as if he had been continuously in the employer’s employment during his absence. 38 U.S.C. *827§ 2021(b)(2)1 (1982). Of course, if § 2021(b)(3)2 contained a similar requirement, there would be no real dispute in this case, but as stated earlier § 2021(b)(3) does not require an employer to treat an absent reservist as if he were present. Thus, the returning veteran cases have no relevance here.
Next, the majority devises the “involuntary absence” concept, not a hint of which can be found in § 2021(b)(3) itself. Further, it is difficult indeed to see the concept in the collective bargaining agreement. As the majority points out, one class of employees who may be absent during the week in which a holiday occurs yet still receive holiday pay is the class of employees on vacation. Certainly, vacation leave is not involuntary. More importantly, the collective bargaining agreement fails to exempt from the requirement of having to work during the week of the holiday innumerable categories of employees who might be absent involuntarily. To name a few, the agreement does not exempt employees on sick leave for more than a week, most employees on a layoff, and employees who are drafted or otherwise fulfilling regular military obligations. Significantly, this last category of employees also has no statutory entitlement to holiday pay.3
Even if the concept of involuntariness can be found in the collective bargaining agreement, a reservist’s absence is not involuntary in the same sense that the absences of employees listed in the agreement are involuntary. A juror for instance, is under legal compulsion to perform jury duty; no choice triggers the duty. So also no choice is involved when an employee is subpoened as a witness. A Reservist or Guardsman, however, makes a voluntary decision to join the Reserves or National Guard. At any rate, even if one were to concede that a juror and a reservist are on equal footing, one would not logically reach the conclusion that the majority reaches here. If a reservist and juror are equal, then the reservist is not entitled to just holiday pay but to full pay for all days not worked, since employees absent for jury duty receive full pay. Since it is, however, well settled that § 2021(b)(3) does not require an employer to pay the employee for the time he is absent fulfilling reserve obligations, Monroe, 452 U.S. at 563 n. 4, the juror analogy is flawed and ineffective.
In Monroe, the Supreme Court staked out a clear route for us to follow when deciding cases arising under § 2021(b)(3). I would follow that route and affirm.

. 38 U.S.C. § 2021(b)(2) provides in pertinent part:
... any person who is restored to or employed in a position in accordance with the provisions ... of this section should be so restored or reemployed in such manner as to give such person such status in the person’s employment as the person would have enjoyed if such person had continued in such employment continuously from the time of such person's entering the Armed Forces until the time of such person's restoration to such employment, or reemployment, (emphasis added)

. 38 U.S.C. § 2021(b)(3) provides:
Any person who holds a position described in clause (A) or (B) of subsection (a) of this section shall not be denied retention in employment or any promotion or other incident or advantage of employment because of any obligation as a member of a Reserve component of the Armed Forces.

. We note that the majority finds it particularly significant that reservists’ absences are short. I do not think that this is either important or supportable. As the Supreme Court recognized in Monroe, absences caused by reserve obligations can be two months or more. 452 U.S. at 563, 101 S.Ct. at 2518.