Jcrc Challenges Navy Ruling That Jewish Employes Were Not Bias Victims

The Jewish Community Relations Council appealed to the U.S. Civil Service Commission’s Board of Appeals today to overturn a ruling by the Secretary of the Navy that three Jewish employs of the Navy’s Aviation Supply Office here were not victims of discrimination and are therefore not entitled to promotion to the next available vacancies. Promotion of the three civilian employes was recommended in a written report by John Mc-Fadden, a Civil Service Commission examiner, who found that a statistical pattern of failure to promote Jews within the Navy’s buying branches established a case of “discrimination because of religion.” Secretary of the Navy John H. Chafee reversed the examiner’s ruling on grounds that there was no direct evidence of discrimination against Jewish employes, either as written or verbal policy.

The employes, on whose behalf the JCRC filed a complaint last March with the commander of the Navy Aviation Supply Office, are Mrs. Jeanne Ellman, a procurement agent, and Louis Shapiro, a contract negotiator, both employed by the Navy since 1948, and Milton M. Mellman, a contract negotiator whose employment by the Navy dates from 1941. Mrs. Ellman holds the grade of GS-9 while Mellman and Shapiro to both are grade GS-12. All three hold Superior achievement Awards and other citations for outstanding work.

The complaint, filed eight months ago by Nathan Agran, an attorney on the JCRC staff, noted that there has not been a single promotion of a Jewish employes beyond the grade of GS-9 since 1965, although more than 50 such promotions had been made in that time and several Jewish persons were in contention.

MORE THAN A STATISTICAL ODDITY

That point was contained in McFadden’s report which observed that “Had only one qualified Jewish candidate raised an allegation of discrimination there could have been some doubt of its accuracy and validity. However, when three qualified candidates with the record of accomplishment of Mrs. Ellman, Mr. Mellman and Shapiro unite to make the accusation, the circumstances surrounding their failure to achieve promotion plus the lack of promotion above GS-9 of any Jew, convinces us that there is more than a statistical oddity on which their complaint is based. We believe unavoidable the conclusion that they were discriminated against because they were members of the Jewish faith.”

Chafee, in his reversal, wrote the complainants: “There is no evidence on the case record of discrimination against Jewish employes on the part of any supervisor or official or religious group in the Purchase Division. It is noted that you at no time charged any individual with discriminating against you. Statistics showing that no Jewish employe in the Purchase Division has been promoted above GS-9 subsequent to 1965 in and of themselves are insufficient to establish that discrimination was the reason.”

Benjamin S. Loewenstein, JCRC president, said that if the opinion reversed by the Secretary of the Navy is upheld by the Civil Service Board of Review, it “could further a precedent in that it says statistical patterns, without direct written or spoken evidence, can establish a case of discrimination.” He said that if the Civil Service Commission denied the appeal, the JCRC will carry its fight to the Federal District Court.