Bohm v. L.B. Hartz Wholesale Corp., C8-84-1891
| Decision Date | 09 July 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. C8-84-1891,C8-84-1891 |
| Parties | 38 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 495, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 35,837 Treva BOHM, Appellant, v. L.B. HARTZ WHOLESALE CORPORATION, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by the Court
1. The trial court did not err in determining that female employee did not prove her allegation of company-wide systematic discrimination in violation of Minn.Stat. § 363.03, subd. 1(2) (1984).
2. The trial court properly rejected appellant's claim that her employer was required to evaluate the intrinsic worth or difficulty of every job within the company and set wages accordingly.
3. Company's discharge of employee was a proper economic decision, not made in retaliation of employee's allegations of sex discrimination.
Kenneth P. Griswold, St. Paul, for appellant.
Kurt J. Marben, Thief River Falls, for respondent.
Heard, considered and decided by WOZNIAK, P.J., and NIERENGARTEN and CRIPPEN, JJ.
Treva Bohm sued L.B. Hartz Wholesale, Inc. for sex discrimination in employment in violation of Minn.Stat. § 363.03, subd. 1(2) (1984). Bohm alleged that she did not receive equal pay for work which was substantially similar to work done by a male employee within her department, that the employment practices of Hartz were discriminatory towards women, and that she was discharged from her employment in retaliation for her complaints of sex discrimination.
While the court concluded that Bohm did not establish unequal pay for equal work, this matter was not appealed. Bohm's argument on appeal is that the trial court erred by refusing to consider the theory of comparable worth in its determination of this discrimination action. She also claims the court erred in finding Hartz' employment practices non-discriminatory and Bohm's discharge from employment non-retaliatory. We affirm.
L.B. Hartz Wholesale is a wholesale grocery business in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. At the end of 1980, Hartz employed 125 men and seventeen women. Of the seventeen women, thirteen were classified as "unskilled clerical." One woman was a clerical worker, two were computer operators, and one worked as a buyer.
Treva Bohm was one of the thirteen female employees classified within the company as "unskilled clerical." Bohm is a high school graduate and has completed a one-year general secretarial course. She worked at Hartz from August 1975 until March 1981. She began as a key punch operator, entering orders into a computer. In 1976, she moved to the computer and billing department where she remained, doing unskilled clerical work, until her discharge in 1981.
Hartz had no formal seniority or hiring or firing policy in 1981. Each of the company's seven departments determined the seniority of its employees, basing seniority on the time spent in the individual department, and not on the total amount of time with the company. Each department head made his own determination on hiring and firing. A majority of the employees approved this policy.
Hartz conducted a salary survey in 1980. Several area companies and the Minnesota Department of Economic Security were questioned about wage policies in northwestern Minnesota. The survey revealed that Hartz was paying its clerical workers more than the area average, and that it was paying its warehouse workers less than the competitive wage.
The clerical workers at Hartz received an hourly wage of $6.92, while clerical workers at Super Valu and Artic Enterprises received hourly wages of $6.09 and $6.04 respectively. The State's published survey revealed the prevailing average to be between $4.34 and $4.78.
Warehouse employees included order pickers and truck drivers. Order pickers at Hartz received hourly wages of $8.46, while order pickers at Super Valu and Twin Ports Grocery received hourly wages of $9.51 and $8.52 respectively. Truck drivers for Hartz received an hourly wage of $9.06, while truck drivers at Super Valu and Twin Ports Grocery received hourly wages of $9.86 and $8.82 respectively.
Salaries for 1981 were determined at a meeting between Hartz management and department supervisors in December 1980. In light of the study, it was decided that clerical workers would not be receiving the same salary increases as other Hartz employees. Consequently, clerical workers received a wage increase of 5.97% for 1981 and non-clerical workers received up to a 20% increase. Three women, Edith Brandli, Ellen Bottem, and Judy Machal, received wage increases of 11.8 to 20%. They were the only non-clerical women employees at Hartz at the time. Wage increases at Hartz have been uniform ever since 1981.
Norman Olson, head of the computer and billing department, told the department members about the wage increases at a department meeting in December 1980. Treva Bohm testified that he said: "(The company) would be giving the men a seven or eight percent raise twice a year, and the women a two to three percent raise once a year because the salaries were too similar." Olson testified that he announced the wage increases in terms of clerical and nonclerical employees. Doreen Bjerknes and Ellen Bottem, two women in the computer and billing department, corroborated Olson's testimony.
Bohm complained vehemently about the pay increases. Bohm testified that she complained to Olson several more times and that she demanded to speak to the Board of Directors. According to her testimony, the company executives were not told of this request and she was not invited to the board meeting.
Two months after she confronted Olson, Bohm was placed on short hours. A month later she was permanently laid off. Bohm claims that her lay off was in retaliation for her discrimination claim; Hartz asserts that it was an economic decision.
In 1981, Hartz lost three major accounts, representing about 3.7 million dollars in gross business per year. In an effort to cut back, Hartz' corporate secretary instructed the head of the computer and billing department to discharge one of their employees.
The department head, Norman Olson, decided on Treva Bohm because she was the least senior employee and the most dispensable. Olson testified: He testified that he didn't let her go on the basis of the company's seniority policy, although he acknowledged that, if he had, he still would have selected Bohm. Bohm contends that she was not the least senior employee, but there was no evidence substantiating this claim.
Hartz first received notice of Bohm's sex discrimination claim when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission contacted the company in April 1981. Bohm's charge with the Equal Opportunity Commission was filed April 4, 1981. Bohm was discharged in March 1981.
Hartz did not hire a replacement for Bohm. Her duties were divided between three other department members.
Hartz took other cost reduction measures as well. Kenneth Hagan, an order picker, was laid off on April 18, 1981, and never rehired. Brian Gerardy, an order picker, was laid off from March 21, 1981 to May 16, 1981. Glen Knott, a maintenance worker in the trucking department, was laid off from March 28, 1981, to July 4, 1981. Curtis Westlund, an order picker, had his weekly hours reduced from 40 hours to 25 hours. In addition to these employee cuts, Hartz rebid its insurance and sold its computer under a leaseback agreement which resulted in a total savings of $200,000.
Warehouse is the largest department at Hartz. It had 45 employees in 1981, all of them male. The warehouse workers included order pickers, forklift operators, and loaders. The order pickers assembled 600 to 800 cases of groceries to be delivered to retail stores each day. These cases weighed anywhere from five to one hundred pounds. The forklift operators moved the groceries. The loaders loaded the trucks for delivery.
Ferrl Ranum, the head of the warehouse department, testified that he took job applications from both men and women. Only two women have applied since 1979. No women employees at Hartz have ever asked to transfer to this department. No new warehouse workers have been hired since 1979.
Jeffrey Gustafson, a job service program specialist for the State of Minnesota, testified that very few women ever apply for warehouse positions in northern Minnesota. He further testified that women in northwest Minnesota fill 95% of all available clerical positions.
1. Did the trial court err in determining that Hartz does not systematically discriminate against female employees?
2. Did the trial court err in not employing the theory of comparable worth in determining this discrimination action?
3. Did the trial court err in determining that Hartz did not discharge Bohm in retaliation for her complaint?
Bohm argues that patterned and systematic discrimination existed throughout Hartz because female employees were predominantly in unskilled clerical positions earning less pay than unskilled male employees and because the departmental seniority system discouraged women from transferring to other jobs. The trial court determined that the concentration and compensation of women in clerical positions at Hartz was merely a reflection of prevailing patterns of employment in northwestern Minnesota. As to the seniority system, the court ruled that there was no evidence that it was devised to keep women in lower-paying clerical positions.
Bohm is claiming a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, Minn.Stat. § 363.03, subd. 1(2) (1984).
The Minnesota Supreme Court has applied principles developed in the adjudication of claims arising under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000(e) (1976), in construing the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The beginning point for...
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...Hubbard, 330 N.W.2d at 445-46. An employee must establish the employer's knowledge of protected activity. Bohm v. L.B. Hartz Wholesale Corp., 370 N.W.2d 901, 908 (Minn.Ct.App.1985) (dismissing former employee's retaliation claim because "management was not aware of [her] sex discrimination ......