West v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 78-3359
| Decision Date | 02 January 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-3359,78-3359 |
| Citation | 609 F.2d 147 |
| Parties | 103 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2150, 87 Lab.Cas. P 11,755 Robert W. WEST, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SAFEWAY STORES, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Kenneth J. Mighell, U. S. Atty., Fort Worth, Tex., Robert E. Kopp, Atty., Appellate Staff, Civil Div., Dept. of Justice, Barbara A. Babcock, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D. C., Douglas N. Letter, Atty., William H. Berger, Dept. of Labor, Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff-appellant.
Allen Butler, Dallas, Tex., for defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Before COLEMAN, Chief Judge, KRAVITCH and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges.
The district court below dismissed appellant's action to secure a 40 hour work week pursuant to 38 U.S.C. § 2021. Because we hold that a 40 hour work week was guaranteed to the appellant despite his National Guard duties and that such a guarantee is an incident or advantage of employment within the meaning of § 2021, we reverse.
The facts in this case are largely undisputed. The appellant has been a member of the National Guard for thirteen years and, as such, is required to attend drill sessions one weekend per month. These sessions do not occur at a regular time each month, however. West has been employed by the appellee Safeway Stores, Inc. since 1968. Upon entering this employment, appellant disclosed his National Guard obligations. Moreover, he has always given the appellee ten days to two weeks advance notice of his drill sessions. The appellant is occupied as a meatcutter with the appellee and is a member of Local 540, Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butchers Union. The parameters of appellant's employment obligation with appellee are set forth in a collective bargaining agreement entered in between his local and appellee. Article 4 of this agreement provides in pertinent part:
All full-time employees shall be guaranteed forty (40) hours of work in regular work weeks consisting of not more than five (5) days, not necessarily consecutive, and thirty-two (32) hours in holiday weeks of not more than four (4) days, not necessarily consecutive and excluding the holiday. Any employee who is absent or tardy according to his work schedule may lose his guarantee for that day as shown on the work schedule.
Safeway's policy with regard to reservists or National Guard members is that if an employee must attend weekend sessions he is given an unpaid leave of absence. Because the employee is "absent" Safeway considers this absence as within the last section of Article 4, Supra, thus negating the guarantee of a 40 hour work week. Heretofore, some market managers have accommodated appellant by scheduling him for 40 hours of work even though he had been absent for Guard duty. The appellee has now specifically instructed managers, however, that they need not attempt to accommodate him. Appellee has conceded below that it could accommodate appellant's schedule if necessary.
Appellant brought this suit pursuant to 38 U.S.C. § 2021 to secure the 40 hour work week guaranteed in the collective bargaining agreement. 1 Section 2021 provides in pertinent part Any person who holds a position described in clause (A) or (B) of subsection (a) of this section shall not be denied retention in employment or any promotion or other incident or advantage of employment because of any obligation as a member of a Reserve component of the Armed Forces.
Essentially, appellant 2 contends that since the collective bargaining agreement guarantees a 40 hour work week and because the only reason that he is not receiving a 40 hour work week is due to his National Guard obligations, that he is being denied an advantage of employment. It must be emphasized that appellant is not seeking a benefit not accorded to other employees, 3 or a benefit uniquely dependent upon length of service 4, but only that he be accorded the same benefits secured to other employees, a 40 hour week. Thus, there are two issues to be resolved on appeal: (1) whether appellant was guaranteed a 40 hour work week pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement and (2) whether a 40 hour week so guaranteed is an incident or advantage of employment within § 2021. Both are questions of first impression in this circuit.
Whether appellant was guaranteed a 40 hour work week is derivable from the collective bargaining agreement and normal business practices of the appellee with regard to its employees. As the Supreme Court has stated, however, in a slightly different context 5:
(N)o practice of employers or agreements between employers and unions can cut down service adjustment benefits which Congress has secured the veteran under the Act.
Fishgold v. Sullivan Corp., 328 U.S. 275, 285, 66 S.Ct. 1105, 1111, 90 L.Ed. 1230 (1946). See also Alabama Power Co. v. Davis, 431 U.S. 581, 97 S.Ct. 2002, 52 L.Ed.2d 595 (1977). Appellee claims that the agreement does not "cut down" benefits because a 40 hour work week is not absolutely guaranteed under the collective bargaining agreement but rather is conditionally guaranteed on the presence of the employee. That is, on those days on which the employee has reserve duty, that employee is absent, within the meaning of Article 4 Supra, therefore breaching the guarantee of a 40 hour work week. If we accept appellee's argument, § 2021 would be effectively annulled. The essence of reserve duty in this context is absence from work. If employers could by agreement with unions require that workers be present in order to receive certain benefits, then reservists could never secure the benefits or advantages of employment which the Act was designed to protect. Such a result was condemned by the Supreme Court in Fishgold, supra. This precise argument was rejected in Lott v. Goodyear Aerospace Corporation 395 F.Supp. 866, 870 (N.D.Ohio 1975) which involved the right to overtime pay. Although Lott involved a different benefit than the instant case, the right to overtime work was conditioned similarly upon presence and the analogy carries dispositive force here. Thus, we construe § 2021 to require that employers, in applying collective bargaining agreements, treat reservists as if they were constructively present during their reserve duty in similar contexts. See Kidder v. Eastern Airlines, 469 F.Supp. 1060 (S.D.Fla.1978); Hanning v. Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp., 82 CCH Labor Cases P 10,070 (E.D.La.1977). Similarly, the Seventh Circuit recently has rejected the appellee's contention that an absence for reserve drills should be treated as any other absence under a collective bargaining agreement. 6 In Carney v. Cummins Engine Company, Inc., 602 F.2d 763 (7th Cir. 1979), a panel for the Seventh Circuit held that § 2021 was violated when the employer treated absent reservists as if they had refused to work overtime and were therefore not given other opportunities to make up this overtime opportunity. The court stated:
It is immaterial that non-military employees of defendant on leave of absence would not be entitled to overtime opportunities (citations omitted), since the right of reservists to such opportunities is governed by statute rather than by collective bargaining agreement. Nor does it matter that affording the plaintiff relief might conflict with the collective bargaining agreement between defendant and Union.
We hold, therefore, that § 2021 requires that the collective bargaining agreement be construed as if the employee was constructively present at work on those days he had reserve duty. This construction not only conforms to the congressional intent that employees not be penalized for serving their country, 7 but also prevents the statute from being rendered a nullity.
Having determined that the appellant is guaranteed a 40 hour work week undiminished by his reserve obligation, we address the question whether such a guarantee is an incident or advantage of employment. Once more, this is a question of first impression in this court. In Monroe v. Standard Oil Company, 446 F.Supp. 616 (N...
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Rogers v. City of San Antonio
...bargaining agreements, treat reservists as if they were constructively present during their reserve duty in similar contexts." 609 F.2d at 150. The employee, a meat cutter, had contended that, since the collective bargaining agreement guaranteed a 40 hour work week and because the only reas......
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Rogers v. City of San Antonio, Texas
...absence' but to the more embrasive class of `coworkers not having (reserve) obligations.'"91 Indeed, the Fifth Circuit stated in West v. Safeway Stores, Inc.,92 that the Act requires that employers, in applying collective bargaining agreements which grant a benefit of employment based on "p......
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Monroe v. Standard Oil Company
...much of its practical significance is lost. As the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit observed in West v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 609 F.2d 147, 149 (1980): "The essence of reserve duty in this context is absence from work. If employers could . . . require that workers be pre......
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...effect during that service. Section 4316(b)(1); Rogers, 392 F.3d at 764. The Plaintiff nevertheless contends that West v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 609 F.2d 147 (5th Cir. 1980) and Allen v. United States Postal Service, 142 F.3d 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1998) support his opposing view that the DOC viola......