Leisner v. New York Telephone Company, 72 Civ. 2127.

• Citation: 358 F. Supp. 359
• Decision Date: 02 March 1973
• Docket Number: No. 72 Civ. 2127.,72 Civ. 2127.
• Parties: Susan Wagner LEISNER et al., Plaintiffs, v. NEW YORK TELEPHONE COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

358 F. Supp. 359

Susan Wagner LEISNER et al., Plaintiffs, v. NEW YORK TELEPHONE COMPANY, Defendant.

No. 72 Civ. 2127.

United States District Court, S. D. New York.

March 2, 1973.

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Harriet Rabb, George Cooper, New York City, Richard Leisner, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn, New York City, by Morton M. Maneker and Howard L. Ganz, New York City of counsel, for defendant.

MOTLEY, District Judge.

Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

Plaintiffs are all women employed in management level positions with the defendant New York Telephone Company. They have brought this class action pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S. C. § 2000e et seq. for injunctive relief and damages. They alleged that defendant discriminates against women employed by the New York Telephone Company in management level positions in its traffic departments throughout the state in violation of the statute. Defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint on numerous grounds was denied on November 27, 1972.¹ Plaintiffs' motions for a preliminary injunction and for class action certification are granted for the reasons stated below.

The named plaintiffs are or have been employed in the Southern Manhattan Dial Division. All were hired during the period September, 1970 to September, 1971. They seek to bring this action on behalf of themselves and all women employed in management level positions in the defendant's traffic departments throughout New York State.

The New York Telephone Company is organized into five geographical territories. Within each territory there are separate functional units, including a traffic department, which provides operator services and administers the equipment by which telephone calls are routed. Within the Traffic Department of the Manhattan territory there are several divisions, including the Southern Manhattan Dial Division in which the named plaintiffs work or have worked.

Management employees within the traffic departments are placed in various salary grade levels, ranging from Grade 5, the lowest significant management level, to Salary Grade 23. Approximately 38% of the management level employees within the Company are women. This figure reflects the percentage of women in the relevant labor force and has remained unchanged for the past six years. However, within the traffic departments located in the New York Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, as of December, 1971, the distribution of men and women in management level positions at various salary grade levels was as follows:

                ---------------------------------------------------------------
                               Maximum                                    %
                   Level       Salary      Men      Women      Total      Women
                ---------------------------------------------------------------
                     5        $11,400        5       386        391        98.7
                     6         12,300        4       185        189        97.9
                     7         13,300       21       787        808        97.4
                    10         16,800      174       292        466        62.7
                21, 22, 23     20,700      220        57        277        20.6
                

According to the Company's own projections, little significant change in the percentage of women at the higher management levels is to be anticipated in the Company as a whole as distinguished from the traffic departments. In September, 1972, 9.1% of the second-level management employees throughout the Company (Grades 21-23) were women. Defendant estimates that by the end of 1976, 14.5% of its second-level management employees will be women. (Defendant's Exhibit J.)

Within specific job titles, there were more significant disparities in the numbers of men and women. For instance, 73.7% of the women in the higher management levels, Grades 21-23, were classified as traffic supervisors, as compared with only 41.8% of the men. Moreover, defendant classified only approximately 7% of the women traffic supervisors as "officials and managers," persons ". . . who set broad policies, exercise overall responsibility for execution of these policies, and direct individual departments or special phases of a firm's operations." The remaining 93% are classified as "professionals," persons whose occupations require ". . . either college graduation or experience of such kind and amount as to provide a comparable background."² By contrast, approximately 27% of the male traffic supervisors are classified as "officials and managers."

Within Level 10, which has several job titles as of December, 1971, 52.7% of the women were chief operators while there was only one male in that position. Ninety-nine percent of the female chief operators were classified by the Company as officials and managers. While chief operators do not make policy decisions, they are the source of recommendations as to changes in operating practices, make payroll decisions and schedule their work force.

By contrast, 48.3% of the males within Level 10 were classified as dial service supervisors. Each dial service supervisor supervises approximately 20 persons and has overall responsibility for the central offices. Dial service supervisors must determine whether equipment in a central office is functioning properly. If they note a problem, they have the responsibility to secure corrective action, often from other departments of the Company. As of September 30, 1972, the average length of service within the Company of dial service supervisors was 8.4 years for males and 23.3 years for females.

In Salary Grade 7, 89.6% of the women were group chief operators, most of whom were classified by the Company as "officials and managers." The group chief operators work under the supervision of the chief operators and are responsible for planning, training and scheduling the work of groups of telephone operators. According to a bulletin once used by the Company to recruit college women, "this is the most popular position among college girls entering New York Telephone." (Plaintiff's Exhibit 6.)

Of the men situated in Level 7, 76.2% were assistant dial service supervisors all "officials and managers."

Assistant dial service supervisors, who work under the dial service supervisors, supervise approximately eight people, and are responsible for spotting indications of deterioration in the offices to which they are assigned. The average length of service within the Company for assistant dial service supervisors was 1.3 years for males and 15.4 years for females as of September 30, 1972.

The Company operates several training and career development programs designed to develop the talents of persons the Company believes to have potential for management level positions. One of the programs, the Nyack Training School, is a five or six week program designed to give dial service supervisors additional technical expertise. Between June 1, 1970 and June 1, 1972, approximately 18% of those who attended throughout the state were women.³

The Management Development Program is designed to permit employees to demonstrate that they have the aptitude for high management level positions. The program affords its participants limited amounts of formal training and participants are expected to demonstrate that they can perform effectively at the higher levels. If, after a period of a year to 15 months, a participant is not adjudged to have the characteristics the Company deems necessary for further promotions, he or she is discharged. From 1965 through 1970, there were only two or three women in the Management Development Program. Between June 1, 1970 and June 1, 1972, approximately 6% of the participants were women (or 20 out of a total of 339). As Dominick Carbone, general personnel supervisor for defendant, conceded, ". . . the program is predominantly male."

Defendant discontinued the Management Development Program in its Manhattan Traffic Department in March, 1972 and replaced it with a Career Development Program. The Company purportedly terminated the Management Development Program in Manhattan because of its failure to attract significant numbers of women and because it wanted to include management people other than those ". . . who had exhibited supervisory interests and had significant technical experience. . . ." The program includes counseling, staff tours, training sessions and testing. About 50% of the participants are women.

Mr. Carbone testified that, in placing persons in management level positions within the Manhattan Traffic Department, employment interviewers consider whether the person is interested in numerical or analytical work, whether the person has proven successful in previous endeavors and, for positions involving significant supervisory responsibilities, whether the applicant has had supervisory experience. The Company considers whether a person has a technical degree in determining his or her interest in and aptitude for technical work but does not consider a technical degree to be a prerequisite for such work.⁴ The Company also considers results of various objective tests designed to ascertain leadership abilities and performance evaluations completed by an employee's immediate supervisor. In short, according to Carbone, ". . . we stand back and look at the individual as a total individual, and, `Is this person going to be successful in our business?' becomes our final criterion after we have all of these factors reviewed."

With respect to the Management Development Program, Carbone testified that applicants ". . . first of all, have to have an express interest in supervisory line management. These individuals have objectively demonstrated skills of leadership. They have come to us with proven `track' records in the area of supervision or leadership. These individuals have high academic achievements." Carbone noted that the Company has had considerable success in recruiting Management...