Meyers v. General Services Administration

609 F. Supp. 352, 39 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1855, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15644, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 36,083
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 22, 1984
DocketCiv. A. Nos. 83-1021, 83-2383
StatusPublished

This text of 609 F. Supp. 352 (Meyers v. General Services Administration) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meyers v. General Services Administration, 609 F. Supp. 352, 39 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1855, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15644, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 36,083 (E.D. Pa. 1984).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

GILES, District Judge.

Mrs. Kim W. Meyers, pro se, instituted suit against the General Services Administration (GSA) in two civil actions alleging that various acts of discrimination ultimately led to her removal from employment. The actions were brought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1972, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiff is a twenty-seven year old black female who was hired as a custodial laborer by the GSA on July 5, 1978. She was initially given a Veterans Readjustment Appointment having completed three years active duty with the United States Army from October 1974 to October 1977.

2. Plaintiff developed a service-connected disability known as Raynauds Disease. It is an abnormal compromise of the circulatory system.

3. GSA was not informed by the Army, the Veterans’ Administration or plaintiff of the nature of the disability or of any physical limitations upon work assignment associated with the disease.

4. Plaintiff’s job performance as custodial laborer was satisfactory.

5. On August 14, 1980 and pursuant to its upward Mobility Program, GSA advertised two electronics technician positions in the Office of Real Property, Federal Protective Service, System Section which could be filled at the GS-6, 7 or 8 level. Applicants without specialized experience could qualify through the provisions of the Training and Advancement Development Agreement (TADA) which is part of the agency’s Upward Mobility Development System.

6. Plaintiff applied for one of these positions and, on October 5, 1980, was promoted to the trainee position of Electronics Technician, GS-6 in the Security Systems Section of the Federal Protective Service. Plaintiff did not have the requisite specialized experience to enter the program at the GS-7 level.

7. Consequently, on or about December 31, 1980 plaintiff and the agency entered into a training and advancement developmental agreement. Under TADA plaintiff would receive on-the-job training and formal instruction for a period of eighteen months. Upon successful completion of the prescribed training program, plaintiff would be eligible for promotion to the GS-7 level. If the training program was not successfully completed, GSA had the option [354]*354of returning plaintiff to her former custodial job or the nearest equivalent vacancy for which she was qualified.

8. The parties subsequently entered into a revised TADA on or about February 25, 1981.

9. Plaintiffs first several months in training were uneventful. Her first evaluation was satisfactory. Her immediate supervisor was Walter Wesley, chief of the security systems section of the Federal Protective Service. Wesley is black. He subsequently left the GSA for a more advantageous position with another federal agency.

10. Plaintiff contends that when Wesley was there she was fairly treated but that soon after he left she was discriminated against by his successors to the position of section chief, who are white. The alleged discrimination is characterized as race, sex and handicap discrimination.

11. Since plaintiff was the only female staff employee in the section, she contends that there must have been a prior purposeful exclusion of women from employment by Federal Protective Service and, with her, there was a determined effort to cause her to fail to complete the training program and, hence, to be demoted from the security systems section.

12. Plaintiff claims that she was the only black staff employee in the system section. This is not entirely accurate inasmuch as the former chief of the section, Wesley, is black. After Wesley left, she was the only black staff member in the systems section. However, she was not the only black staff member in the Federal Protective Service. The systems section was a comparatively new and very small part of Federal Protective Services. The system is too small a unit upon which to base inferences of race or sex discrimination from raw statistical data. Moreover, it appears from the record evidence that Federal Protective Services, during plaintiffs employment, experienced various job freezes. For many employees, then, the systems section was probably not an attractive branch of government in terms of career advancement.

13. Plaintiff’s complaint of race discrimination rests upon allegations that the other trainee was white, was brought into the training program as a GS-7, was accorded better training and courtesies by the supervision, and was given a promotion upon completion of the program whereas she was denied a promotion and the opportunity to complete the training.

14. The court finds that plaintiff’s claims of harassment by supervision are not borne out by the evidence. Rather, the evidence is compelling that plaintiff was an enigma to supervision, who tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to decipher, understand and correct plaintiff’s poor job performance. Equally persuasive is the evidence that suggests that plaintiff’s poor performance was in substantial part attributable to her medical conditions. These included severe migraine headaches, resort to medication for her circulatory problems, and the need for extended periods of sick leave. These medical problems manifested themselves quite often in a lack of concentration, inability to focus on work assignments and communications difficulties with her immediate supervisors and fellow employees.

15. Plaintiff well knew her medical problems. It is equally clear that she never fully acknowledged all of their effects upon her work performance or demeanor. She did appreciate that the “stress” of the job was making her sick. In this, her physician concurred. Further, the doctor recommended to plaintiff and to her section chief that she be reassigned to less stressful duties. When Lester Sitzes, Acting Chief of the Section, asked plaintiff to put such a request in writing she refused. I do not find plaintiff was subjected to any extraordinary work-place stress. What she experienced was no more than that which would be expected in causing an employee to perform the job properly and to comply with established work rules. Even assuming that there were mistakes of judgment in plaintiff’s supervision, I do not find that [355]*355such were motivated by race, sex or handicap discrimination.

16. Plaintiff chose not to tell her supervisors what specific medical conditions she had or exactly how they were impacting upon her. What she regarded as stressful could not be eliminated either from her training or from the expected job duty of interrelating with other workers and supervision. Consequently, it cannot be said that plaintiff was discriminated against on the basis of her handicap.

17. On or about October 9, 1981, plaintiff submitted a revised Personal Qualification Statement (Standard Form 171) to the Personnel Office. On the basis of the newly submitted information, an agency Personnel Staffing Specialist recommended that the length of plaintiffs TADA be reduced from 18 months to 12 months.

18. Due to a mistake by the GSA, plaintiff was not given a training agreement which would have lasted for twelve months instead of eighteen. This error was discovered after she was in the training program.

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Bluebook (online)
609 F. Supp. 352, 39 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1855, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15644, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 36,083, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meyers-v-general-services-administration-paed-1984.