Valentino v. US Postal Service

• Decision Date: 16 January 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 77-0331.
• Parties: Mary P. VALENTINO, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

511 F. Supp. 917

Mary P. VALENTINO, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 77-0331.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

January 16, 1981.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Stephen N. Shulman, Patricia Magee Vaughan and Susan A. Elliott, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff.

William H. Briggs, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Washington, D.C., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

GASCH, District Judge.

This class action was tried before the Court, sitting without a jury, during the first two weeks of December 1979. At trial the Court heard the testimony of twenty-nine witnesses, received into evidence numerous exhibits, and accepted the stipulations of the parties' counsel as to certain facts. After trial, at the Court's request, the parties' counsel submitted proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. Upon consideration of the foregoing and the entire record, the Court makes the findings of fact and conclusions of law that follow.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. This is a class action brought by plaintiff Mary P. Valentino against defendant the United States Postal Service ("USPS") under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.

2. Plaintiff has exhausted her administrative remedies and has met the jurisdictional requirements set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c) for bringing this action.

3. By order dated June 13, 1978, the Court certified the class which plaintiff represents as follows:

all females who since June 16, 1976, have been employed or are now employed by the United States Postal Service (USPS) Headquarters in the Washington, D.C. statistical metropolitan area in the positions compensated according to USPS pay scales at level PES-17 or higher, and who have been accorded disparate treatment because they have been denied advancement on the basis of their sex, excluding, however, any such females who are union members or who participated in the personnel decisions resulting in plaintiff Mary P. Valentino's individual claims.

4. In 1976 when the events concerning plaintiff's individual claims occurred, and in 1978, when the class she represents was certified, the USPS pay scale relevant to this action was known as the Postal Executive Schedule, or PES pay scale. Subsequent to the class certification, the PES pay scale has been changed.

5. As the first step in this change, the PES pay scale became the Executive Administrative Schedule, or EAS pay scale. The EAS pay scale is identical with the old PES scale in both pay scale and promotion procedures. Thus, for example an EAS-20 is what was formerly referred to as PES-20.

6. More recently, on March 31, 1979, the upper management levels of the USPS were placed under the Postal Carrier Executive Service, or PCES system. There are two levels in the PCES system: PCES-II and PCES-I. PCES-II's serve at the pleasure of the Postmaster General and are the officers of the USPS, the highest level in USPS management. PCES-I's are general managers and above, the second highest level in USPS management. Thus, PCES relates to the title of a position, not specifically to the position's former grade. As a general rule, all level 30 and above grades are now in the PCES system. There are, however, positions formerly below the 30 level included in the PCES system.

I. Plaintiff's Individual Claim.

A. Background.

7. In October 1970, Ms. Valentino left her position as Director of Personnel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") to work for the then Post Office Department as an Employment Specialist (Women). The EEOC had recently reduced her pay grade, and by coming to the Post Office Department plaintiff increased her annual salary by approximately $2,000.

8. During this period, the functions of the Post Office Department were being transferred to the USPS. In implementing this transfer of functions, the Department offered certain employees an option to retire early with a six-month pay bonus. Ms. Valentino was within the group entitled to that option. In May 1971, just seven months after coming to the Department, she retired and received a six-month pay bonus of approximately $13,600.

9. Nine months later, in February 1972, Ms. Valentino reentered the work force as a Personnel Staffing Specialist at the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"). In December 1972 she left that position and became Director of Personnel for the Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC"). In February 1974 she left the CPSC and returned to the USPS as the Director, Office of Career Planning, PES-28. Unlike most, if not all, other persons who returned to the USPS after receiving the six-month retirement bonus, plaintiff was not required to repay the bonus upon her return.

B. The Realignment.

10. Plaintiff, as Director of the Office of Career Planning, was in the Employee and Labor Relations Group.¹ She, along with heads of seven other departments or offices, reported directly to the Senior Assistant Postmaster General for the Employee and Labor Relations ("E&LR") Group. Her staff consisted of herself and two other persons. On paper, her office had two responsibilities: the design, implementation, and monitoring of a Women's Program, and career planning for postal employees. There was a certain amount of overlapping between the career planning functions of plaintiff's office and those of other organizations within the E&LR Group. The problem of functional overlap was not, however, limited to the Office of Career Planning. James V. P. Conway, who became Senior Assistant Postmaster General ("SAPMG") of the Group in September 1975, testified and the Court finds that at the time when he assumed that position the Group needed realignment, and that a large number of positions would in the interests of efficient management have to be eliminated.

11. Planning for the realignment began shortly after Mr. Conway became the SAPMG for the E&LR Group. All the Group's offices and high-level managers — including the Office of Career Planning and Ms. Valentino — contributed to planning the realignment. The goal of the realignment was to streamline and make more efficient the organization and to eliminate functional duplication among the numerous offices in the Group. During this planning phase, a conscientious effort was made to avoid considering what specific people would fill what specific positions in the new organization.

12. In April 1976 the realignment was announced, effective June 4, 1976. The realigned Group had approximately 100 fewer positions. Ms. Valentino's position as Director, Office of Career Planning, was one of the positions that had been eliminated.

13. Several new positions, including the directorships of the Office of Human Resources and the Office of Employee Services, were created by the realignment. Both of these new positions reported to Assistant Postmaster General ("APMG") Paul Carlin, who, as head of the Employee Relations Department, in turn reported to Mr. Conway, SAPMG for the E&LR Group.

14. A substantial number of people were affected by the realignment. Approximately 140 people became excess as a result of the realignment. These were people like Ms. Valentino, whose positions had been eliminated and who did not assume newly-created positions in the E&LR Group.

15. Ms. Valentino contended that the realignment should have been handled as a reduction in force ("RIF"), in which persons entitled to Veterans Preference are favored.² As the widow of a veteran, Ms. Valentino was entitled to preference under that Act.

16. Mr. Conway testified that the USPS sought to avoid using RIF procedures. Among the reasons for avoiding RIF procedures, particularly relevant in the context of this litigation, was that the favoring of veterans would have serious adverse effects on female employees, most of whom were not entitled to Veterans' Preference.

17. Ms. Valentino filed an administrative charge with the Civil Service Commission challenging the realignment. She contended that the realignment was improper because the USPS had failed to follow the Veterans' Preference Act. She was unsuccessful in persuading the Commission of the merits of her claim. However, she pursued this contention long after she took up the advocacy of women's rights.

18. Somewhat inconsistent with plaintiff's advocacy of women's rights is her continued insistence upon her veterans' preference bumping rights which are a part of the RIF procedures which she advocates in lieu of the realignment program. RIF procedures disproportionately favor male employees who are more likely to have veterans' preference than women. Second, plaintiff's advocacy of RIF procedures which might help her but not women generally impairs the efficacy of her representative position. Her notion of what is discriminatory or not discriminatory appears to turn on whether the policy benefits her personally rather than women generally.

C. The Essential Vacancy System.

19. On November 12, 1975, the Postmaster General directed that all vacancies at Headquarters be filled from within. This directive was viewed as a fundamental change in policy. It brought outside hiring at the USPS to a virtual standstill and committed the USPS to a policy of filling high-level management jobs from within.

20. On January 28, 1976, the USPS established its Essential Vacancy System to implement the Postmaster General's policy of promoting from within. The system prohibited the filling of vacant positions which were not considered essential. With regard to those positions which were to be filled, the Essential Vacancy System brought two fundamental changes into promotion practices at the 17 and above levels at USPS Headquarters. First, it required the advertising, or posting, of all vacancies at levels 29 and below to be filled by promotions. Initially, the posting of vacancies at levels 30 and above was optional. Later, it became mandatory to post all vacancies except officer positions. The...