Goodrich v. International Broth. of Elec. Workers, AFL-CIO

• Decision Date: 29 July 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-2386,AFL-CIO,82-2386
• Citation: 712 F.2d 1488
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit
• Parties: 32 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 999, 26 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 603, 32 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 33,756, 229 U.S.App.D.C. 456, 98 Lab.Cas. P 34,412 Bernice P. GOODRICH, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS,

Page 1488

712 F.2d 1488

32 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 999,

26 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 603,

32 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 33,756, 229 U.S.App.D.C. 456,

98 Lab.Cas. P 34,412

Bernice P. GOODRICH, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL-CIO.

No. 82-2386.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued April 26, 1983.

Decided July 29, 1983.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action No. 81-03214).

Richard J. Hirn, Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Elihu I. Leifer, Washington, D.C., for appellee.

Before GINSBURG and SCALIA, Circuit Judges, and VAN PELT, ^* Senior District Judge for Nebraska.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge GINSBURG.

GINSBURG, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Bernice P. Goodrich brought this civil action against her employer, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ("IBEW"), pursuant to the Equal Pay Act of 1963. ¹ The Act targets The IBEW sought summary judgment on two grounds. First, it asserted that Goodrich and the male employees in question did not perform "equal work." Second, it relied on the Act's awkwardly-phrased fourth affirmative defense: the wage disparity at issue, the IBEW urged, was "based on any other factor other than sex." 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1)(iv) (1976). The district court found that genuine issues of material fact precluded summary adjudication of the "unequal work" defense, but held that the IBEW was entitled to judgment, as a matter of law, on its "other factor other than sex" plea.

                an "endemic problem of employment discrimination";  it is a "broadly remedial" statute, which firmly establishes as federal law the "principle of equal pay for equal work regardless of sex."   Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U.S. 188, 190, 195, 208, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 2228, 2234, 41 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974). 2  Goodrich alleged that she performs the same work as a number of male IBEW employees, but is paid substantially less
                

Our review indicates that the district court applied the Act's residuary affirmative defense incautiously and disposed of the case precipitously. As explained by the IBEW, both the unequal work plea and the residuary defense ultimately rested on the same contentions--that the men with whom Goodrich compared herself were on call to perform additional duties and had special expertise augmenting the value of their services to the union. The district court correctly ruled that the IBEW's "additional duties" and "special expertise" contentions entailed disputed matters of fact relevant to a determination whether Goodrich and her male co-workers were engaged in equal work. When the same contentions reappeared in explanation of the IBEW's "other factor other than sex defense," however, the district court viewed them differently and granted summary judgment. We conclude that the "additional duties" and "special expertise" contentions present triable issues. We therefore reverse the judgment entered summarily for the IBEW, and remand the case for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

Bernice Goodrich has been employed at the IBEW's headquarters in Washington, D.C. since 1952; she is not, however, a union member. In 1961, she began work at her present position as an "agreement analyst" in the agreement approval department. The primary function of the department is to review labor agreements that local unions submit to the International President for his approval.

The department is headed by a director, who is male, and has a professional staff of six employees, five males and Goodrich. Of the six staff members, only Goodrich is classified as an agreement analyst. The five male employees hold the position of either "International Representative" or "Senior International Representative." The two "International Representative" classifications carry a large financial advantage. Although Goodrich has considerably more experience in reviewing labor agreements than any of her male colleagues, ³ she receives substantially less pay. ⁴

International Representative status at the IBEW's headquarters is entirely dependent upon active membership in the union. All professional employees at the union's headquarters who have been active members of an IBEW local hold the International Representative title. And only active union members, pursuant to the IBEW "membership rule," are eligible for designation as International Representatives. The agreement approval department is one among many areas of the union's professional operations in which International Representatives work. Regardless of the particular jobs they hold, International Representatives receive a uniform annual salary based on their seniority in the union. These salaries are generally much higher than those paid to professional employees who are not union members. Thus, despite Goodrich's extensive experience in the agreement analysis department, she is paid less than her male co-workers because she has never been a union member and is therefore ineligible to be an International Representative.

In December 1981, Goodrich commenced this action claiming that the disparity between her pay and that of her male co-workers violated the Equal Pay Act. To establish a prima facie case under the Act, a plaintiff must show that an employer pays different wages to employees of opposite sexes "for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions." 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1) (1976); see Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U.S. 188, 195, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 2228, 41 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974) (legislative history clarifies that plaintiff must make these threshold showings). Once a plaintiff has carried this initial burden, a defendant may escape liability either by refuting any part of the prima facie case, or by pleading and proving one of the Act's four affirmative defenses. These defenses permit payment of different wages if "made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on In her complaint, Goodrich alleged the necessary elements of a prima facie violation of the Act. The parties then stipulated, inter alia, that: (1) the work performed by Goodrich is equal to the work of the five male International Representatives "at such times as such Representatives are assigned to and physically performing work in the Agreement Approval Department"; (2) the IBEW has always required active union membership as a prerequisite to International Representative status; and (3) the "membership rule" has been applied equally and without exception to male and female IBEW employees. Record Excerpts (R.E.) 14-15.

any other factor other than sex." 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1) (1976). ⁵

The IBEW initially challenged Goodrich's prima facie case by arguing that the work she performed was not equal, within the meaning of the Act, to the work International Representatives performed. The Equal Pay Act standard is neither "comparable" work nor "identical" work. Instead, the test under the Act is "substantial equality"--whether the jobs in question are substantially related and substantially similar in skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. See Thompson v. Sawyer, 678 F.2d 257, 274 (D.C.Cir.1982); Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 567 F.2d 429, 449 (D.C.Cir.1976), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1086, 98 S.Ct. 1281, 55 L.Ed.2d 792 (1978). According to the IBEW, the work in this case was unequal for two reasons: International Representatives perform additional duties beyond those required for the particular jobs they currently hold, and they have special expertise relevant to their duties. ⁶ Goodrich contested these claims; she asserted that the additional work was trivial, frequently nothing more than attending social functions, and that the alleged special expertise had no relationship to the work performed at headquarters. ⁷ The district court concluded that the parties' conflicting allegations concerning the "substantial equality" of the work performed by Goodrich and males in the agreement approval department presented material issues of fact that were not appropriate for resolution by summary judgment. Memorandum Opinion (Mem. Op.) at 3, R.E. 8.

As a second defense, the IBEW asserted that any wage disparity rested upon a bona fide factor other than sex--the fourth affirmative defense under the Act. The union identified its membership rule, which precludes Goodrich from becoming an International Representative, as the requisite neutral factor. Significantly, however, the IBEW did not assert that the additional pay International Representatives received was principally a bonus in recognition of important service rendered to locals in past years. Instead, the union claimed that the membership rule served to assure that International The district court believed the stipulation that the membership rule is applied equally to men and women doomed "any attempt [by Goodrich] to draw [the IBEW's] affirmative defense into question." Mem. Op. at 4, R.E. 9. The IBEW, according to the district court, had "carefully and extensively explained its position that the union membership rule is a bona fide rule that serves a valuable business purpose." Id. at 6, R.E. 11. Despite Goodrich's argument that the expertise relevant to job performance and additional work claims lacked solid evidentiary support, so that the alleged "valuable business purpose" had not been established as a matter of law, the district court remarked that Goodrich "made no attempt to rebut defendant's justification for the IBEW membership rule." Id. On this reasoning, the district court granted the IBEW's motion for summary judgment.

                Representatives would have the special expertise required for the additional duties they perform.   Goodrich repeated in this context what she had said in relation to the "unequal

...