Rios v. Reynolds Metals Company

• Decision Date: 20 September 1972
• Docket Number: No. 71-2681.,71-2681.
• Citation: 467 F.2d 54
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit
• Parties: Ramon J. RIOS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

467 F.2d 54 (1972)

Ramon J. RIOS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 71-2681.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

September 20, 1972.

Michael P. O'Reilly, James De Anda, Edwards & De Anda, Corpus Christi, Tex., for appellant.

Julia P. Cooper, Chief, Appellate Section, Office of the Gen. Counsel, John de J. Pemberton, Jr., Acting Gen. Counsel., Charles L. Reischel, Atty., EEOC, Washington, D. C., amicus curiae.

William H. Keys, Keys, Russell, Watson & Seaman, Corpus Christi, Tex., for appellee.

Gerald Aksen, Gen. Counsel, American Arbitration Assn., New York City, amicus curiae.

Before BELL, DYER and CLARK, Circuit Judges.

BELL, Circuit Judge:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e et seq. The Act provides a procedure whereby an aggrieved employee may obtain relief from injuries caused by discriminatory employment practices. This procedure culminates in a civil action by the employee where other measures fail. The question presented on this appeal is whether this judicial remedy is available to an employee who first submits his claim to arbitration under an anti-discrimination clause in a collective bargaining agreement between his employer and his union and receives an adverse arbitral determination of the issues he ultimately presents to the court under Title VII.

We touched on this question in a peripheral manner in a prior decision of this court. Hutchings v. United States Industries, Inc., 5 Cir., 1970, 428 F.2d 303. There we held that the doctrines of election of remedies and res judicata did not bar a subsequent suit under Title VII where the rights and remedies at issue in an arbitration proceeding differed from the rights and remedies at issue under Title VII. We left for the future ". . . the question whether a procedure similar to that adopted by the Labor Board in deferring to arbitration awards when certain standards are met might properly be adopted in Title VII cases." Id. at 314, n. 10. The more important fact in Hutchings was that the collective bargaining agreement and arbitral process did not expressly include the employer obligation under Title VII. There we said:

"In view of the dissimilarities between the contract grievance-arbitration process and the judicial process under Title VII, it would be fallacious to assume that an employee utilizing the grievance-arbitration machinery under the contract and also seeking a Title VII remedy in court is attempting to enforce a single right in two forums. We do not mean to imply that employer obligations having their origin in Title VII are not to be incorporated into the arbitral process. When possible they should be. See generally Gould, Labor Arbitration of Grievances Involving Racial Discrimination, 118 U.Pa.L.Rev. 40 (1969). But the arbitrator\'s determination under the contract has no effect upon the court\'s power to adjudicate a violation of Title VII rights."

Here the employer obligation in issue under Title VII is expressly included in the arbitral process under the collective bargaining agreement.¹ We also have a prejudgment determination by an arbitrator of an issue which is the same issue as that which the employee subsequently presented to the district court.

In the case at bar the district court, 332 F.Supp. 1209, held that the arbitrator's determination of this issue barred the civil action under Title VII. For reasons to be stated, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.

Appellant Rios was employed at a plant operated by Reynolds Metals Company, appellee. Rios applied for a position as mechanic pipefitter, a position then vacant. After passing a written examination, he assumed the new post on a trial basis. About one month later he was demoted to his former position.

Pursuant to the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between Reynolds and the Aluminum Workers International Union, Rios filed a grievance in which he claimed that he had not been given a reasonable trial period at his new assignment. Arbitration ensued. At the arbitration hearing, in response to questions raised by his union representative, Rios maintained that one reason for his demotion was that Reynolds had discriminated against him because he was a Mexican-American. The arbitrator rejected this contention and determined that Rios had been given fair treatment during the trial period. The arbitrator concluded that Rios was demoted because he was unable to perform the new job satisfactorily.

Rios initiated this action in the district court before the arbitration hearing was held. The arbitrator's decision followed and thereafter, in light of the decision of the arbitrator, Reynolds moved for summary judgment. Reynolds contended that Rios, having submitted to arbitration, was bound by the arbitrator's determination. The district court accepted this contention.

II.

The settlement of labor disputes by arbitration is a favored national labor policy. See, e. g., Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union, Local 770, 1970, 398 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 1583, 26 L.Ed.2d 199; United Steelworkers of America v. American Manufacturing Co., 1960, 363 U.S. 564, 80 S.Ct. 1343, 4 L.Ed.2d 1403; United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 1960, 363 U.S. 593, 80 S.Ct. 1358, 4 L.Ed.2d 1424; United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409; Textile Workers Union of America v. Lincoln Mills of Alabama, 1957, 353 U.S. 448, 77 S.Ct. 912, 1 L.Ed.2d 972. For this reason, in developing principles that will govern the availability of judicial relief under Title VII, we must carefully assess the impact of judicial action upon the favored arbitral remedy.

The viability of arbitration depends on the willingness of courts to enforce the arbitrator's award without reopening issues resolved by him. Thus, in such cases, courts customarily defer to the arbitrator's determination. They restrict their inquiry to the single question whether, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, the arbitrator had power to decide the issues he decided. If he had such power, his decision is binding. See, e. g., United Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., supra, 363 U.S. at 596, 80 S.Ct. 1358.

The question here is whether a similar approach should be followed when, in the first instance, the issues decided by the arbitrator are cognizable in the federal court by virtue of Title VII, which manifests a strong national policy against discriminatory employment practices. We conclude that the traditional approach to the arbitration process is not warranted in this context.

The remedy afforded by Title VII is supplemental. It exists apart from analogous remedies provided by contract or by federal or state law. Indeed, aggrieved employees may seek relief under Title VII without first invoking or exhausting available alternative legal or contractual remedies. See Caldwell v. National Brewing Company, 5 Cir., 1971, 443 F.2d 1044; King v. Georgia Power, 295 F.Supp. 943 (N.D. Ga. 1968).² In addition, we have said that even where an employee does pursue an alternative remedy in cases involving Title VII rights, the federal court is to be "the final arbiter." Hutchings, supra, 428 F.2d at 313.

It does not follow, however, that the policies of Title VII require that an employee who has submitted his claim to binding arbitration must always be given an opportunity to relitigate his claim in court. In some instances such a requirement would not comport with elementary notions of equity, for it would give the employee, but not the employer, a second chance to have the same issue resolved. More importantly, such a requirement would tend to frustrate the national policy favoring arbitration. An employer would have little incentive to agree to arbitrate under a system where only the employee, in the event of an adverse arbitral determination, would have an opportunity to relitigate the matter in court.

This, of course, assumes that the national policy favoring arbitration of labor disputes should include grievances concerning rights which are guaranteed by Title VII. As we have noted, the teaching of Hutchings is that they may be included in the grievance-arbitration process. But, as Hutchings holds, the determination in the arbitration process has no effect upon the power of the federal court to adjudicate a violation of rights under Title VII. The question thus becomes whether the courts may accommodate the national arbitration process policy to Title VII proceedings without thwarting the congressional intent in Title VII to eliminate discriminatory practices in employment. We conclude that the policy which favors arbitration and the remedial policy of Title VII may be accommodated by a procedure which was alluded to in Hutchings but saved for decision on another day. It is that a district court may, under limited circumstances, defer to a prior arbitration award.

The apparent analogy is to the deferral procedure followed by the National Labor Relations Board in the exercise of its discretionary powers under the National Labor Relations Act. See Lodge No. 12, etc. v. Cameron Iron Works, Inc., 5 Cir., 1958, 257 F.2d 467, 473; Spielberg Manufacturing Co., 112 N.L.R.B. 1080 (1955).

As we recognized in Lodge No. 12, etc. v. Cameron Iron Works, supra, a prior arbitration award does not divest the NLRB of its statutory jurisdiction to effectuate the policies of the National Labor Relations Act. But we recognized as well that a given controversy may be cognizable both as an arbitrable grievance under a collective bargaining agreement, and as a labor dispute under the National Labor Relations Act. Where such a coincidence of issues exists, it is within the discretionary power of the NLRB to...