EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Petitioner-Appellee, v. A.E. STALEY MANUFACTURING CO., Respondent-Appellant

711 F.2d 780, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 26152, 32 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 33,718, 32 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 279
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 1, 1983
Docket82-1655
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 711 F.2d 780 (EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Petitioner-Appellee, v. A.E. STALEY MANUFACTURING CO., Respondent-Appellant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Petitioner-Appellee, v. A.E. STALEY MANUFACTURING CO., Respondent-Appellant, 711 F.2d 780, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 26152, 32 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 33,718, 32 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 279 (7th Cir. 1983).

Opinions

GRANT,

Senior District Judge.

Respondent-Appellant, A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, appeals from a district court order enforcing an administrative subpoena issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (hereinafter “EEOC”) pursuant to § 710 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company (hereinafter “Sta-ley”) raises three issues for our consideration:

I. Whether the EEOC’s charge is invalid as failing to meet the statutory requirements of § 706(b) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(b));
II. Whether the administrative subpoena is unconscionably burdensome;
III. Whether Staley is entitled to a hearing on the issues before the subpoena is enforced?

[782]*782 Facts

On October 6, 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed its charge that Staley and Local 837, Allied Industrial Workers of America, had unlawfully discriminated against women and blacks because of their sex and/or race in violation of §§ 703 and 707 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (hereinafter “the Act"). The charge specified six discriminatory practices of Staley and Local 837.1

The EEOC served Staley with the charge and with it a request for information. Sta-ley countered with a demand for a detailed account of the factual basis underlying the Commissioner’s charge. On February 17, 1981, following Staley’s failure to supply the requested information, the EEOC issued a subpoena requesting information concerning employment and personnel practices of Staley covering the period January 1, 1978 to February 17, 1981. On February 20, 1981, Staley petitioned the Chicago District Director of the EEOC to revoke or modify the subpoena, but these objections were rejected by the District Director. Staley then appealed the denial to the full Commission. In August 1981, the Commission upheld the District Director’s denial of Staley’s petition to revoke or modify the subpoena and ordered Staley to comply with the subpoena by September 9, 1981. On December 28, 1981, following Staley’s continued refusal to comply with the subpoena, the EEOC filed this action. The district court issued an ex parte order granting the application on December 30, 1981.

COMMISSIONER CHARGE
Pursuant to the authority contained in Sections 706 and 707 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Section 2000(e), et seq., I charge the employer and labor organization listed below with unlawful employment practices occurring at or controlled from the employer’s facility:
A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company 2200 East Eldorado Street Decatur, Illinois 62525 Allied Industrial Workers of America Local 837 R.R. # 2 — Box 177 Assumption, Illinois 62510
I believe that the above employer and labor organization are within the jurisdiction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and have violated, since at least July 2, 1965, and continue through the present to violate Section 703 and Section 707 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, by unlawfully discriminating against blacks and women because of their race and/or sex with respect to recruitment, hiring, assignment, promotion, training, termination, and other terms, conditions and benefits of employment.
More specifically, the employer’s unlawful discriminatory practices include, but are not limited to:
1. Failing or refusing to recruit and select blacks for all blue collar positions on an equal basis with whites because of their race; failing or refusing to recruit and select women for all blue collar positions, on an equal basis with men because of their sex.
2. Restricting and/or excluding blacks and women from all blue collar positions because of their race and/or sex.
3. Restricting and/or excluding blacks and women from the opportunity to work in all blue collar departments because of their race and/or sex.
4. Failing to provide blacks and women with opportunities for promotion, assignment, and training equal to those afforded to whites and men because of their race and/or sex.
5. Terminating women, because of their sex, at a greater rate than men.
6. Maintaining discriminatory policies and practices and other terms and conditions of employment which operate to disadvantage blacks and women because of their race and/or sex.
Specific unlawful employment practices engaged in by both the employer and the labor organization include, but are not limited to, maintaining seniority, posting, and bidding systems as well as other systems contained in the collective bargaining agreement which operate to perpetuate the effects of the employer’s discriminatory hiring, assignment, promotion and training policies.
The persons aggrieved include all blacks and women who have been, continue to be, or may in the future be adversely affected by the unlawful practices complained of herein.

On April 5, 1982, the district court ordered the enforcement of the administrative subpoena, holding that the Commissioner’s charge satisfied the statutory requirements of § 706(b) because it alleged the time, place and circumstances of the [783]*783alleged unlawful employment practices.2 The court specifically rejected Staley’s argument that the charge must allege reasonable cause, finding that all the statute requires is that the charge be made under oath. The court found that the information which the EEOC requested was material and relevant. Furthermore, the court rejected Staley’s contention that the subpoena was burdensome because Staley had failed to show the subpoena would interfere with the normal operation of its business.

Staley moved for reconsideration of the district court order arguing that, inasmuch as its personnel decisions were made pursuant to a bona fide seniority system, it was immune to attack under Title VII pursuant to the Supreme Court’s recent decision in American Tobacco Co. v. Patterson, 456 U.S. 63, 102 S.Ct. 1534, 71 L.Ed.2d 748 (1982). Staley further argued that the date which the EEOC inserted in the charge as the date of the discrimination was invalid because it was a mere pro forma insertion of the effective date of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After a hearing on the motion for reconsideration, the court found that American Tobacco was not applicable to the present case. The court accepted the testimony of the EEOC attorney that the effective date of the Act had not been inserted in a pro forma fashion, but was rather based upon information available to the EEOC. The district court refused to stay its order enforcing the subpoena and Staley filed a timely appeal to this Court.

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711 F.2d 780, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 26152, 32 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 33,718, 32 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 279, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-petitioner-appellee-v-ae-ca7-1983.