Thurgood Marshall

“ We do not mean that delay in the administrative process is other than deplorable. It is deplorable if, as the Court of Appeals thought, the company was hampered in the presentation of its defenses to the back pay specification by the delay. It is even more deplorable if, as seems clear, innocent employees had to live for some years on reduced incomes as a combined result of the delay and the company's illegal failure to reinstate them. It may be that the company could have, through the courts, compelled earlier Board action. ”

“ Wronged employees are at least as much injured by the Board's delay in collecting their back pay as is the wrongdoing employer. In view of 'the economic hardship caused by many years of undeservedly substandard earnings,' lengthy delays 'must render the back pay award a wholly inadequate and unsatisfactory remedy' to the employees for the company's refusal to reinstate them. ”

“ Arguing that the purpose of back-pay awards is to 'deter unfair labor practices,' id., at 364, and believing that a substantial award of back pay would be sufficient to achieve such deterrent effect, the court modified the Board order to eliminate all back pay accruing after July 1, 1959, thus reducing the awards of some 37 strikers who had not yet received complying offers of reinstatement by that date. ”