Francis v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.

55 F.R.D. 202, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13903, 4 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 7811, 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 777
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedMay 3, 1972
DocketCiv. A. No. 2800-68
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 55 F.R.D. 202 (Francis v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Francis v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 55 F.R.D. 202, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13903, 4 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 7811, 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 777 (D.D.C. 1972).

Opinion

[203]*203MEMORANDUM OPINION INCLUDING FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

WADDY, District Judge.

This is an action brought pursuant to the provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. The complaint alleges that the defendant, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Long Lines Department, engaged in unlawful employment practices with respect to plaintiff, Rebecca Francis, a Negro former employee of the company.

The alleged unlawful employment practices complained of are (a) that plaintiff was harassed and unduly reprimanded by her supervisors, was denied access to certain supervisory personnel, and was limited in her promotional opportunities because of her race in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 and (b) plaintiff was discriminated against, harassed and eventually fired in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3 in retaliation for having filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Prior to filing suit plaintiff submitted her complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (hereinafter EEOC). On October 9, 1968, plaintiff was notified by EEOC that the Commission’s conciliatory efforts had failed to achieve voluntary compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that within thirty days of the receipt of the notification plaintiff could institute a civil action in the appropriate Federal District Court. This action was filed November 8, 1968.

The plaintiff seeks injunctive relief, reinstatement, back-pay, costs and attorney’s fees. The plaintiff also seeks to have this action certified as a class action and claims to be a proper representative of a class consisting of all Negro employees of the Long Lines Department of American Telephone and Telegraph Company and all Negro applicants for employment at said department who have been subjected to similar unlawful employment practices.

The case came on for trial before the Court without a jury. The evidence adduced at the trial established the following facts and forms the basis for the conclusions hereinafter stated :

The plaintiff, Rebecca Francis, a Negro, is a resident of the District of Columbia and is a former employee of American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Long Lines Department (hereinafter AT&T). She was hired on October 19, 1965, and worked in the District of Columbia office of the company until she was dismissed on May 22, 1967.

The defendant, AT&T, is a corporation doing business and maintaining an office in the District of Columbia.

On October 19, 1965 plaintiff was hired by the defendant as a Records Clerk, Title Grade 4, and was assigned to a billing group within the Accounting Department of AT&T. The plaintiff was initially assigned to work that would ordinarily be performed by a Title Grade 3 employee pending an opening at a Title Grade 4 level. When an opening did occur, Linda Masters, a white employee, at a Grade 3 level was promoted to the Grade 4 level and given the position. The reason given by the company for promoting Linda Masters into the position rather than offering it to the plaintiff was that Linda Masters had been employed by AT&T longer than plaintiff. The plaintiff alleges that the assignment of the white employee to the Title Grade 4 work ahead of her was due to racial discrimination. However, the plaintiff, even though assigned to work that would ordinarily be performed by a Title Grade 3 employee, at all times during this period received compensation at the Grade 4 rate. Within a short period of time after Linda Masters’ promotion plaintiff was also assigned to Grade 4 work in the billing group. The Court finds that the promotion of Linda Masters to the Title Grade 4 job before [204]*204plaintiff was assigned to work in that grade was not based on race.

When plaintiff began working in the billing group she became friendly with Linda Masters and another white employee and they often spent their coffee breaks together. Mrs. Margaret Clark, their immediate supervisor, a white woman, instructed them that she wanted no more than two employees taking a break at one time. Plaintiff alleges that this order was given by the supervisor to prevent her from associating with white employees inasmuch as the two white employees continued to take their breaks together and she was forced to take her breaks with an employee from another department. However, plaintiff in her testimony stated that Mrs. Clark never specified with whom plaintiff was to take her breaks as long as only two employees were away from their desks at once. The instruction did not limit plaintiff’s association with any other employee but was applicable to all employees in the group.

Plaintiff and other employees in her group were not always punctual in arriving for work and returning from breaks. In December of 1965 and in February of 1966 Mrs. Clark conferred with plaintiff about what Mrs. Clark considered to be an excessive number of times plaintiff had been late reporting for work in the morning. In May of 1966, approximately seven months after she was hired, plaintiff asked Mrs. Clark why she had not yet been promoted to a Title Grade 5. Mrs. Clark replied that plaintiff did not merit a promotion because her record indicated that she had been late reporting to work for one-third of the work days in February, for one-half of the work days in March and for two-thirds of the work days in May. The evidence shows, however, that during the subsequent month plaintiff became more punctual and on June 26, 1966 she was promoted to the position of Reports Clerk, Title Grade 5. After her promotion to the Grade 5 level, she was assigned to the P-1075 Group of the Accounting Department. The function of this group was to process forms (P-1075 forms) on which credit allowances were made to AT&T’s private line service customers for periods of time when such services had been interrupted. The plaintiff became one of several employees who processed these forms.

On September 9, 1966 plaintiff was called into a meeting with her new supervisor, Mrs. Marilyn Fitzgerald, a white woman, and Miss Marie Mott, a white woman, the Accounting Department Manager. The meeting was called because the plaintiff had been tardy three days out of four that week and Miss Mott had received complaints about plaintiff’s loud personal telephone conversations disturbing other employees. Miss Mott warned plaintiff that if she did not become more punctual and curtail her use of the telephone she would be fired. The plaintiff was again reprimanded for excessive tardiness and phone use in November of 1966 by Mr. Gary Holcomb, a white man, who was the second level supervisor to whom Mrs. Fitzgerald reported.

On February 1, 1967 Mrs. Elaine Johnson, a Negro, replaced Mrs. Fitzgerald as plaintiff’s immediate supervisor. The pattern of employee tardiness, including that of plaintiff, persisted under Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson counseled with plaintiff concerning her conduct and, on February 15, 1967, reprimanded her for absenteeism, tardiness and excessive phone use.

On February 16, 1967, plaintiff filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that she was being denied employment opportunities by her employer, AT&T, because of her race.

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55 F.R.D. 202, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13903, 4 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 7811, 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 777, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/francis-v-american-telephone-telegraph-co-dcd-1972.