Peters, C. J.
This case concerns the scope of a trial court’s authority to modify, in contempt proceedings, [481]*481a final remedial order enforcing an administrative determination that the alleged contemnor has engaged in a pattern of discriminatory conduct. The present proceedings began with a complaint by the defendant Antoinette Mason to the defendant commission on human rights and opportunities (hereinafter the CHRO) pursuant to General Statutes § 31-127 (now § 46a-82).1 [482]*482The complainant charged that the plaintiff department of health services (hereinafter the DOHS) had deprived her of a promotion because of racial discrimination in violation of General Statutes § 31-126 (a) (now [483]*483§ 46a-60 [a] [l])2 and had engaged in wrongful retaliation in violation of General Statutes § 31-126 (d) (now § 46a-60 [a] [4]).3 The CHRO found in favor of the complainant and ordered the DOHS to appoint her to a specifically designated laboratory position to which the DOHS had appointed another person. On appeal by the DOHS to the Superior Court, the CHRO order was upheld, and this court subsequently denied certification. Thereafter, the DOHS reorganized its laboratories and appointed the complainant to a position other than that designated in the CHRO order. Alleging that this DOHS appointment constituted noncompliance with its order, the CHRO filed a motion asking that the DOHS be held in contempt. The trial court denied this motion and the defendants have appealed. We find error.
The underlying facts are undisputed. On June 14, 1977, Antoinette Mason filed a complaint of racial discrimination with the CHRO. After an investigation and a hearing, the CHRO hearing tribunal determined, on January 31,1980, that the DOHS had engaged in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination against Mason and had unlawfully denied her a promotion in favor of [484]*484a less qualified white person, Janet Kapish. To remedy this history of discrimination, the CHRO ordered that Mason be appointed to the position of assistant director, health laboratory division (public health chemistry and biophysics section).4 Recognizing that Kapish was an innocent and good faith beneficiary of the discriminatory practices engaged in by the DOHS, the CHRO order instructed the DOHS to transfer Kapish to another available position at the same salary and with the same benefits that she would have received as assistant director.5
6The DOHS appealed the decision and order of the hearing tribunal to the Superior Court, and the CHRO cross-petitioned for enforcement of its order. On September 30,1982, the Superior Court, Barry, J., entered a decree enforcing the hearing tribunal’s order and directing DOHS “to comply with said.order in all respects.” A petition for certification filed by the DOHS was denied on December 7, 1982.
The specific position to which Mason became entitled by virtue of the court order was that of assistant director, health laboratory division (public health chemistry and biophysics section). While judicial proceedings were pending, the title of this position, then held by Kapish, was changed to assistant director, health laboratory [485]*485division (environmental chemistry section). The DOHS then created a new position denominated assistant director, health laboratory division (organic chemistry section) for Mason. As a result of this reorganization dividing up the work of the prior public health chemistry and biophysics section, Mason was placed in a position which did not include all of the responsibilities and duties included in the prior laboratory section at the time of the court order. The DOHS created the two new assistant director positions for two reasons: to carry out the court order of appointment for Mason while continuing Kapish in an available position with the same salary and benefits as an assistant director, and to improve working procedures within the laboratory in response to expansion in its work load and areas of responsibility.
During the contempt proceedings, in which Kapish was given intervenor status, the defendants sought to prove that the DOHS reorganization did not comply with the court order of September, 1982.6 The trial court, Kremski, J., concluded, however, that the DOHS was not in contempt. Acknowledging that the DOHS reorganization placed Mason in a position with fewer responsibilities and duties than the position described in the court order, the court nonetheless viewed the reorganization as consistent with its own interpretation of the court order. That order, according to the court, imposed on the DOHS a dual obligation: to appoint Mason to an assistant directorship in the laboratory and to appoint Kapish to a position comparable in responsibility to her previous position. In discharging its obligation, the DOHS properly implemented a reorganization that not only responded [486]*486to its legal obligation under the court order but also took into account the present needs of a department whose work load had significantly expanded since the inception of this litigation in 1977. In effect, the court held that substantially changed circumstances required a modification of the court order directing the DOHS to appoint Mason to the position of assistant director, health laboratory division (public health chemistry and biophysics section) because that position no longer existed.7
The CHRO and Mason, who filed separate appeals to this court, urge us to overturn the judgment of the trial court on a number of grounds. Both appellants maintain that the trial court erred : (1) in its construction of the September, 1982 court order; (2) in its factual findings about the appropriateness of the positions offered to Mason and to Kapish, and in the subsidiary evidentiary and procedural rulings that led to these factual findings; and (3) in its conclusion that the reorganization of the DOHS precluded appointment of Mason to the position specified in the 1982 court order. Mason argues, in addition, that the trial court erred in permitting Kapish to intervene as a party plaintiff. In light of our disposition of the case, these issues need not be specifically addressed.
[487]*487The determinative question in this case is the scope of the trial court’s authority, in contempt proceedings, to modify a specific and final remedial order resulting from an administrative finding that the alleged contemnor has engaged in a pattern of discriminatory conduct. In contempt proceedings involving family matters, “[b]y virtue of General Statutes § 46b-8 and Practice Book § 464 (a), a trial court is authorized to grant the affirmative relief of modifying an order for support and alimony to one who is in contempt of such an order.” Greenwood v. Greenwood, 191 Conn. 309, 314, 464 A.2d 771 (1983); Sanchione v. Sanchione, 173 Conn. 397, 403, 378 A.2d 522 (1977). A similar view prevailed at common law. Lasprogato v. Lasprogato, 127 Conn. 510, 513, 18 A.2d 353 (1941).
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Peters, C. J.
This case concerns the scope of a trial court’s authority to modify, in contempt proceedings, [481]*481a final remedial order enforcing an administrative determination that the alleged contemnor has engaged in a pattern of discriminatory conduct. The present proceedings began with a complaint by the defendant Antoinette Mason to the defendant commission on human rights and opportunities (hereinafter the CHRO) pursuant to General Statutes § 31-127 (now § 46a-82).1 [482]*482The complainant charged that the plaintiff department of health services (hereinafter the DOHS) had deprived her of a promotion because of racial discrimination in violation of General Statutes § 31-126 (a) (now [483]*483§ 46a-60 [a] [l])2 and had engaged in wrongful retaliation in violation of General Statutes § 31-126 (d) (now § 46a-60 [a] [4]).3 The CHRO found in favor of the complainant and ordered the DOHS to appoint her to a specifically designated laboratory position to which the DOHS had appointed another person. On appeal by the DOHS to the Superior Court, the CHRO order was upheld, and this court subsequently denied certification. Thereafter, the DOHS reorganized its laboratories and appointed the complainant to a position other than that designated in the CHRO order. Alleging that this DOHS appointment constituted noncompliance with its order, the CHRO filed a motion asking that the DOHS be held in contempt. The trial court denied this motion and the defendants have appealed. We find error.
The underlying facts are undisputed. On June 14, 1977, Antoinette Mason filed a complaint of racial discrimination with the CHRO. After an investigation and a hearing, the CHRO hearing tribunal determined, on January 31,1980, that the DOHS had engaged in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination against Mason and had unlawfully denied her a promotion in favor of [484]*484a less qualified white person, Janet Kapish. To remedy this history of discrimination, the CHRO ordered that Mason be appointed to the position of assistant director, health laboratory division (public health chemistry and biophysics section).4 Recognizing that Kapish was an innocent and good faith beneficiary of the discriminatory practices engaged in by the DOHS, the CHRO order instructed the DOHS to transfer Kapish to another available position at the same salary and with the same benefits that she would have received as assistant director.5
6The DOHS appealed the decision and order of the hearing tribunal to the Superior Court, and the CHRO cross-petitioned for enforcement of its order. On September 30,1982, the Superior Court, Barry, J., entered a decree enforcing the hearing tribunal’s order and directing DOHS “to comply with said.order in all respects.” A petition for certification filed by the DOHS was denied on December 7, 1982.
The specific position to which Mason became entitled by virtue of the court order was that of assistant director, health laboratory division (public health chemistry and biophysics section). While judicial proceedings were pending, the title of this position, then held by Kapish, was changed to assistant director, health laboratory [485]*485division (environmental chemistry section). The DOHS then created a new position denominated assistant director, health laboratory division (organic chemistry section) for Mason. As a result of this reorganization dividing up the work of the prior public health chemistry and biophysics section, Mason was placed in a position which did not include all of the responsibilities and duties included in the prior laboratory section at the time of the court order. The DOHS created the two new assistant director positions for two reasons: to carry out the court order of appointment for Mason while continuing Kapish in an available position with the same salary and benefits as an assistant director, and to improve working procedures within the laboratory in response to expansion in its work load and areas of responsibility.
During the contempt proceedings, in which Kapish was given intervenor status, the defendants sought to prove that the DOHS reorganization did not comply with the court order of September, 1982.6 The trial court, Kremski, J., concluded, however, that the DOHS was not in contempt. Acknowledging that the DOHS reorganization placed Mason in a position with fewer responsibilities and duties than the position described in the court order, the court nonetheless viewed the reorganization as consistent with its own interpretation of the court order. That order, according to the court, imposed on the DOHS a dual obligation: to appoint Mason to an assistant directorship in the laboratory and to appoint Kapish to a position comparable in responsibility to her previous position. In discharging its obligation, the DOHS properly implemented a reorganization that not only responded [486]*486to its legal obligation under the court order but also took into account the present needs of a department whose work load had significantly expanded since the inception of this litigation in 1977. In effect, the court held that substantially changed circumstances required a modification of the court order directing the DOHS to appoint Mason to the position of assistant director, health laboratory division (public health chemistry and biophysics section) because that position no longer existed.7
The CHRO and Mason, who filed separate appeals to this court, urge us to overturn the judgment of the trial court on a number of grounds. Both appellants maintain that the trial court erred : (1) in its construction of the September, 1982 court order; (2) in its factual findings about the appropriateness of the positions offered to Mason and to Kapish, and in the subsidiary evidentiary and procedural rulings that led to these factual findings; and (3) in its conclusion that the reorganization of the DOHS precluded appointment of Mason to the position specified in the 1982 court order. Mason argues, in addition, that the trial court erred in permitting Kapish to intervene as a party plaintiff. In light of our disposition of the case, these issues need not be specifically addressed.
[487]*487The determinative question in this case is the scope of the trial court’s authority, in contempt proceedings, to modify a specific and final remedial order resulting from an administrative finding that the alleged contemnor has engaged in a pattern of discriminatory conduct. In contempt proceedings involving family matters, “[b]y virtue of General Statutes § 46b-8 and Practice Book § 464 (a), a trial court is authorized to grant the affirmative relief of modifying an order for support and alimony to one who is in contempt of such an order.” Greenwood v. Greenwood, 191 Conn. 309, 314, 464 A.2d 771 (1983); Sanchione v. Sanchione, 173 Conn. 397, 403, 378 A.2d 522 (1977). A similar view prevailed at common law. Lasprogato v. Lasprogato, 127 Conn. 510, 513, 18 A.2d 353 (1941). Furthermore, in dealing with judgments that decree injunctive relief, we have held that “courts have inherent power to change or modify their own injunctions where circumstances or pertinent law have so changed as to make it equitable to do so.” Adams v. Vaill, 158 Conn. 478, 482, 262 A.2d 169 (1969); Collens v. New Canaan Water Co., 155 Conn. 477, 494, 234 A.2d 825 (1967). That power must, however, be exercised in a manner consistent with “ 'the long-standing rule that a contempt proceeding does not open to reconsideration the legal or factual basis of the order alleged to have been disobeyed and thus become a retrial of the original controversy. . . .’ Maggio v. Zeitz, 333 U.S. 56, 69, 68 S. Ct. 401, 92 L. Ed. 476 (1948).” Cologne v. Westfarms Associates, 197 Conn. 141, 148, 496 A.2d 476 (1985). The question is the applicability of these principles, enunciated in cases in which trial courts had plenary authority to fashion the underlying decrees, to the enforcement of final remedial orders that result from administrative proceedings. Although this issue is one of first impression, we believe that the deference to administrative decision making that is reflected in our Uniform Adminis[488]*488trative Procedure Act counsels against judicial modification of administratively derived remedial orders in contempt proceedings.
Our starting point must be the well established principle that, even “[w]hen agency action is overturned . . . because of invalid or insufficient findings ... a court must ordinarily remand the matter under consideration to the agency for further consideration. Hartford v. Hartford Electric Light Co., 172 Conn. 71, 73, 372 A.2d 131 (1976); Bogue v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 165 Conn. 749, 753-54, 345 A.2d 9 (1974); Watson v. Howard, 138 Conn. 464, 470, 86 A.2d 67 (1952).” Feinson v. Conservation Commission, 180 Conn. 421, 429-30, 429 A.2d 910 (1980); see also Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, 366 U.S. 36, 43-44, 81 S. Ct. 997, 6 L. Ed. 2d 105 (1961); FCC v. Pottsville Broadcasting Co., 309 U.S. 134, 145, 60 S. Ct. 437, 84 L. Ed. 656 (1940). Remand for agency consideration is particularly appropriate, we have held, when the issue before the court is one raising important considerations of policy that the agency has not previously had the opportunity to consider. See Fellin v. Administrator, 196 Conn. 440, 450, 493 A.2d 174 (1985).
It is the CHRO that is charged with the primary responsibility of determining whether discriminatory practices have occurred and what the appropriate remedy for such discrimination must be. When a remedial order of the CHRO has been tested and validated through the judicial process, we hold today that such an order cannot be collaterally modified at the instance of a party resisting judicial enforcement of that order. Undeniably, a court adjudicating contempt proceedings must retain the authority to decide whether a remedial order is so vague and unclear that it is inappropriate to impose sanctions for disobedience of the order. See Adams v. Vaill, supra, 485-86; Labbadia v. Bailey, 147 [489]*489Conn. 82, 86, 157 A.2d 237 (1959). The problem in this case, however, is not ambiguity. At the heart of the controversy that divides the parties is the exactitude of the remedial order that Mason be appointed to a specifically designated assistant directorship in the DOHS laboratory. Judicial authority to deal with ambiguity does not encompass judicial reconsideration of clear and unequivocal remedial orders, even on the ground of a substantial change of circumstances, when those remedial orders represent the culmination of fully litigated administrative proceedings.
Because the trial court’s decision that the DOHS was not in contempt resulted from an erroneous view of its authority to modify the express terms of the remedial order of September, 1982, its judgment cannot stand. We have often looked to federal employment discrimination law for guidance in enforcing our own anti-discrimination statute. See Civil Service Commission v. Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities, 195 Conn. 226, 230, 487 A.2d 201 (1985); Wroblewski v. Lexington Gardens, Inc., 188 Conn. 44, 53, 448 A.2d 801 (1982); Pik-Kwik Stores, Inc. v. Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities, 170 Conn. 327, 331, 365 A.2d 1210 (1976). The federal case law recognizes that appellate courts must inquire into the interpretative reasoning that led a trial court to conclude that a remedial order had not been violated. N.L.R.B. v. Warren Co., 350 U.S. 107, 110-13, 76 S. Ct. 185, 100 L. Ed. 96 (1955); Eaton v. Courtaulds of North America, Inc., 578 F.2d 87, 90-92 (5th Cir. 1978). When, as here, the trial court’s reasoning was erroneous, its conclusion that the questioned conduct did not constitute a contempt is equally erroneous and must be overturned despite the narrow scope of appellate review of contempt proceedings; see Potter v. Board of Selectmen, 174 Conn. 195, 197, 384 A.2d 369 (1978); Tobey v. Tobey, 165 Conn. 742, 746, 345 A.2d 21 (1974). In accordance with the [490]*490principles we have set out above, the case must be remanded to the CHRO to determine whether a substantial change in circumstances requires modification of its earlier remedial order. See Civil Service Commission v. Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities, supra, 231.
There is error, the judgment is set aside and the case is remanded to the trial court with direction to remand the case for further consideration by the commission on human rights and opportunities.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.