U.S. E.E.O.C. v. Target Corp.
| Decision Date | 23 August 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-3559.,04-3559. |
| Citation | 460 F.3d 946 |
| Parties | U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TARGET CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
James M. Tucker (argued), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Donald M. Lewis (argued), Halleland, Lewis, Nilan & Johnson, Minneapolis, MN, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before CUDAHY, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a Complaint against Target Corporation (Target) in the district court on February 8, 2002. The EEOC charged that Target violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (The Act), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., by engaging in race discrimination against African-American applicants for managerial positions. The EEOC also alleged that Target violated the Act when it failed to make and preserve records relevant to the determination whether unlawful employment practices had been, or were being, committed. On July 1, 2003, both parties brought motions for summary judgment. On August 2, 2004, the district court denied the EEOC's motion, granted Target's motion in its entirety, and dismissed the action. The EEOC now appeals. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.
Target Corporation is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One of its retail divisions is Target, a discount chain of more than 1,100 stores nationwide. Target organizes its operations by Groups, and the Groups are divided into districts. This case involves District 110 in Group 192. Group 192 is made up of Target Districts in several southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois counties. District 110 is made up of stores in the Madison, Milwaukee, and Waukesha, Wisconsin metropolitan areas.
Each district is managed by a District Team Leader, and each store is managed by a Store Team Leader (STL), who is assisted by Executive Team Leaders (ETLs). Each ETL is responsible for a different area of store operation. Most stores have the following ETLs: a Guest Services ETL, who manages the front end of the store, including cashiers and returns; a Hardlines ETL, who manages the dry goods section of the store; a Softlines ETL, who manages the clothing and jewelry section of the store; a Team Relations ETL, who manages the store's human resources functions; and a Logistics ETL, who manages the stockroom of the store.
In the first step of the ETL hiring process, Target pre-screens applicants to determine if they meet the minimum qualifications for the position. Target does not specify the credentials an applicant must have to pass the pre-screening, but factors such as education, professional experience and retail-related experience are considered. Target also generally requires that an applicant have either a college degree or significant management experience. If the recruiter determines that an applicant meets Target's minimum standards for an ETL position, the recruiter will contact the applicant to schedule an initial interview. This interview is usually conducted by telephone, but may take place at a Target store. During this interview, each applicant is asked the same or similar questions, which are designed to determine if the applicant meets the minimum standards for an ETL position.
Before February of 2001, applicants who performed well in the initial interview were invited to attend an "ELITE" interview. The ELITE interview procedure had two parts: first, a written test called a PDI, and second, three rounds of one-on-one personal interviews. Target restructured this procedure in 2001.
The PDI is a standardized multiple-choice test that is used to evaluate the leadership ability of applicants. Target does not look at the actual score an applicant receives, but instead assigns the applicant a color code, which indicates a range in which the applicant scored. A green score indicates that the applicant scored well, a yellow score indicates an applicant obtained a satisfactory score and a red score indicates an applicant scored poorly. Target claims that a green or yellow score is a prerequisite for an applicant's hiring, but such a score does not guarantee employment.
An applicant's performance in the interview round is weighted more heavily than the PDI test performance. During the ELITE interview round, Target executives perform one-on-one interviews with applicants. The executives use an interview guide which contains questions that are designed to evaluate the applicants' leadership abilities. All applicants are asked the same questions. The applicants' answers are scored using set guidelines. The interviewers then assign a total score for each applicant.
After the one-on-one interviews are completed, the interviewers have a consensus meeting to discuss all applicants. Target claims that the total scores of the applicants are used only as a guide in hiring and that applicant's scores are not directly compared. Thus, the interviewers may choose to hire an applicant who had a total score that was lower than another applicant not chosen.
This case involves a group of individuals who claim that they were not hired in Target's ETL hiring process because of their race. First, in early 2000, James Daniels, Jr., an African-American, applied to Target for an ETL position in District 110. He interviewed for an ETL position on March 13, 2000. Daniels did very well on his PDI test, scoring higher than ninety-seven percent of the candidate norm group. Target did not hire Daniels. Target claimed he did not meet the requirements for an ETL position based on his ELITE interview, but did not produce the ELITE interview forms for Daniels and did not explain how he failed to meet those requirements.
The claims of the three other individuals in this case, Kalisha White, Ralpheal Edgeston and Cherise Brown-Easley involve their contact with STL Matthew Armiger. Before February of 2001, District 110 had a district recruiter. When the district recruiter position was eliminated, STL Richard Walters, who was temporarily assigned recruiting duties, asked fellow STL Armiger for help with those duties. At that time, Armiger was managing a newly-opened and short-staffed Target store in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Walters and Armiger initially shared the recruiting duties equally, but later Armiger's duties were scaled back. Armiger testified that he believed his recruiting duties were secondary to his management of the store.
Kalisha White, an African-American who attended Marquette University, emailed Target her resume for an ETL position on February 20, 2001, while she was still a student at Marquette. White's resume indicated that she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, an African-American sorority. Armiger e-mailed White and asked her to call to set up an interview. White called at least twice, but each time she spoke with Armiger he said he was too busy to schedule an interview.
White became suspicious of Armiger and decided to conduct an experiment to determine if he had discriminated against her because of her race. Thus, on May 9, 2001, she submitted a resume to Armiger under a fictitious name, "Sarah Brucker." White used her own telephone number, and gave Brucker a Brookfield, Wisconsin, address. She believed the address was located in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood. Armiger testified that White had a stronger resume than Brucker because White was pursuing an MBA degree, while Brucker was not. On May 10, 2001, Armiger emailed and called Brucker, asking her to return his call. White had a Caucasian acquaintance call Armiger and pretend to be Sarah Brucker. Armiger scheduled an interview with Brucker during their conversation. White testified that she called Armiger soon after Brucker's conversation with him, but he said that he was too busy to schedule an interview with her.
Ralpheal Edgeston received an email from Armiger on March 2, 2001, in which Armiger asked her to call and schedule an interview. Edgeston, an African-American student at Marquette University, had submitted her resume to Target for an ETL position at a multicultural job fair held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the previous month. Edgeston's resume indicated that one of her college majors was African-American studies and, like Kalisha White's resume, that she was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which Armiger testified to knowing was an African-American sorority. Additionally, her resume listed that she was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Edgeston called Armiger and scheduled a phone interview for March 4, 2001; however, Armiger did not call Edgeston at the appointed time and did not return her calls after that date. Target never scheduled another interview with Edgeston.
Class member Cherise Brown-Easley, an African-American, also submitted her resume to Target at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee multicultural job fair in February 2001. Brown-Easley's resume indicated that she was a member of the "Metropolitan Alliance of Black School Educators." Brown-Easley received an email from Armiger requesting that she call Armiger to schedule an interview. She called Armiger and scheduled an interview for March 4, 2001. Armiger did not contact Brown-Easley at the appointed time. Instead, Brown-Easley called Armiger a half hour after the interview time, and after being informed that he had left for the day, she left a message for him. The following day, she left another message for Armiger, but she never heard back from him.
During the week that Armiger failed to contact Edgeston and Brown-Easley, he was scheduled...
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