Plott v. General Motors Corp., Packard Elec. Div.

• Decision Date: 20 December 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-3952,94-3952
• Parties: 69 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 826, 67 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,842, 64 USLW 2447, 33 Fed.R.Serv.3d 944 Chris R. PLOTT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, PACKARD ELECTRIC DIVISION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1190

71 F.3d 1190

69 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 826,

67 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,842, 64 USLW 2447,

33 Fed.R.Serv.3d 944

Chris R. PLOTT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, PACKARD ELECTRIC DIVISION Defendant-Appellee.

No. 94-3952.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued Oct. 11, 1995.

Decided Dec. 20, 1995.

Michael D. Rossi (argued and briefed), Guarnieri & Secrest, Warren, OH, for Chris R. Plott.

Robert S. Walker, Joseph D. Pollack (argued and briefed), Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Cleveland, OH, for General Motors Corp., Packard Elec. Div.

Before: KENNEDY and MOORE, Circuit Judges; JOHNSTONE, Senior District Judge. ^*

MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff appeals a summary judgment dismissing his Title VII reverse discrimination suit against defendant General Motors Corporation ("GM"). We affirm for the reasons that follow.

I.

A.

In 1983, after a national investigation of GM's employment practices by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the "EEOC"), GM and the EEOC entered into a Conciliation Agreement (the "Agreement") covering GM facilities nationwide. Although GM denied all allegations of discrimination, the Agreement set various remedial employment goals. The provision relevant to this case required GM to "make good faith efforts to assure that ... minorities are at least 15.5% of those chosen for apprenticeship openings, and women are at least 12.0%." In addition, the Agreement directed GM to "provide pre-apprentice training for minorities and women at selected facilities where openings are anticipated in the foreseeable future."

In 1987, Chris R. Plott, an unskilled white male employee at GM's Packard Electric Division, successfully tested for admission into a skilled trades apprentice program at GM. However, Plott was not admitted into the program because the group of successful applicants for the forty available apprenticeships did not contain the percentage of women and minorities required under the Agreement. To remedy this problem and purge the selection process of any discriminatory impact, GM revised the test and offered the revised version to applicants. Plott again had one of the top forty scores, but the group once more failed to include the requisite percentage of women and minorities.

GM therefore decided to institute a pilot two-week pre-apprentice training program designed to develop the skills necessary to qualify for an apprenticeship. Any woman or minority who had come within twelve points of the score needed to qualify on the revised test was invited to participate in the program. At the end of the training, the trainee took a pre-apprentice training exam, a high score on which entitled the trainee to a seven-point increase in his or her score on the revised apprenticeship test. In addition, each trainee was allowed to retake the revised test; GM anticipated that a second try would result in a five-point increase over the trainee's previous score.

After the women and minorities had completed the training program and retaken the revised test, their new scores were integrated into the list of scores that Plott and other white male applicants had previously achieved. The result was that the number of minorities in the top forty exactly equaled the percentage needed under the Agreement, and the number of women exceeded the requisite percentage. GM then admitted everyone in the new top forty. Plott was displaced by some of the new scores and no longer qualified for an apprenticeship.

B.

After meeting the procedural requirements for a Title VII claim and receiving a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC, Plott filed suit in federal district court. The district judge awarded GM judgment on the pleadings, but this court reversed, finding that Plott should have been allowed to file an amended complaint. See Plott v. General Motors Corp., Packard Elec. Div., No. 92-3166, 1993 WL 59316 (6th Cir. March 5, 1993) (unpublished disposition). On remand, Plott's second amended complaint alleged two violations of section 703 of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2. First, Plott claimed that because a particular provision of the Conciliation Agreement was facially discriminatory, the adoption of the Agreement was itself an illegal act. Second, he alleged that GM violated Title VII by exceeding the Agreement's terms in its implementation of the pre-apprentice training program. He sought monetary relief of $100,000 and attorney fees.

The district court granted GM's motion for summary judgment. Plott appeals the summary judgment and also appeals the district judge's refusal to allow additional discovery.

II.

We review grants of summary judgment de novo, viewing all facts and inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the appellant. City Management Corp. v. U.S. Chem. Co., 43 F.3d 244, 250 (6th Cir.1994). Reversal is warranted if the appellant can demonstrate the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Id.

A.

Plott first claims that the actual adoption of the Agreement violated Title VII. In order to show that the adoption of an EEOC conciliation agreement was an independent act of discrimination, a party must demonstrate that the agreement constitutes a bad faith attempt to bestow unequal employment benefits. See EEOC v. McCall Printing Corp., 633 F.2d 1232, 1238 (6th Cir.1980); see also Marcantel v. State of La., Dep't of Transp. and Dev., 37 F.3d 197, 200-202 (5th Cir.1994) (following McCall ); Carey v. U.S. Postal Serv., 812 F.2d 621, 624-25 (10th Cir.1987) (same). In support of his claim, Plott points to the provision that instructs GM to "make good faith efforts to assure that ... minorities are at least 15.5% of those chosen for apprenticeship openings and women are at least 12.0%." He argues that this provision represents a bad faith attempt to bestow unequal benefits because the inclusion of the phrase "at least" technically allows the plan to produce an apprentice class composed entirely of women and minorities.

No evidence in this case shows that GM joined in adopting this provision in order to provide unequal employment benefits to women and minorities. Moreover, the "at least" language, standing alone, does not evidence such an intent. In fact, the first Supreme Court case on affirmative action under Title VII approved a plan that contained similar language. See United Steelworkers of Am. v. Weber, 443 U.S. 193, 224 n. 3, 99 S.Ct. 2721, 2738 n. 3, 61 L.Ed.2d 480 (1979) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) (noting that plan provided that "at a minimum, not less than one minority employee will [qualify] for every non-minority" (emphasis added)). Aside from his reading of this clause, Plott has offered no basis for his allegation that the Agreement was adopted in bad faith to provide unequal benefits. Summary judgment on this point was therefore correct.

B.

Plott next contends that GM's affirmative action program was unlawfully discriminatory because it exceeded the Conciliation Agreement's goals. To support this argument, he points to the fact that GM admitted an apprentice class that was 27.5% female even though the Agreement only required 12%. Had GM not overshot the Agreement's goals with respect to females, Plott argues, he would have secured an apprenticeship. Plott admits that GM did not exceed the Agreement's goals with respect to minorities, and therefore does not allege race discrimination in the implementation of the Agreement.

The proper inquiry is whether GM's pre-apprentice training program constituted a good faith attempt to comply with the Agreement's affirmative action provisions, not whether there were more women actually admitted to the apprentice program than the minimum number required under the Agreement. Pursuant to section 713(b) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-12(b),

[i]n any action or proceeding based on any alleged unlawful employment practice, no person shall be subject to any liability or punishment for or on account of (1) the commission by such person of an unlawful employment practice if he pleads and proves that the act or omission complained of was in good faith, in conformity with, and in reliance on any written interpretation or opinion of the [EEOC].... Such a defense, if established, shall be a bar to the action....

This section insulates employers from liability for decisions made in reliance on an EEOC opinion.

In the year following the adoption of the Conciliation Agreement, the EEOC sent GM a letter stating that

[i]t is the opinion of the Commission that any action or omission of General Motors Corporation ..., or any of [its] officers, agents or employees, that is or shall be taken in a good faith attempt to comply with the affirmative action or other provisions of the Conciliation Agreement ... will not constitute a violation of any of the provisions of Title VII.

The letter met all the requirements of 29 C.F.R. Sec. 1601.93 (1995) and therefore qualified as an EEOC opinion under section 713(b). Consequently, as long as GM acted in good faith in attempting to comply with the Agreement, it did not violate Title VII. See Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 423 n. 17, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2374 n. 17, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975) (noting that good faith reliance on EEOC opinion conveys complete immunity in Title VII actions).

In this case there is no evidence to suggest that GM acted in bad faith. In fact, Plott admitted in his deposition that he believed that the program was a good faith attempt to meet the Agreement's goals. Indeed, it is difficult to see what stage of GM's decisionmaking process could be attacked as lacking in good faith. When GM first administered its apprenticeship test, the top forty candidates did not include enough women and minorities to satisfy the Agreement's goals; only three women and no minorities were included in the top forty. GM therefore revised the test to purge it of any discriminatory impact. The revised test, however, again produced a class with...