Donaldson v. Pillsbury Company Defendants' Response to First Interrogatories After Remand

    UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA

'15 ION

MARCELINE M. DONALDSON, and others 
similarly situated,

Plaintiffs,
-vs-
THE PILLSBURY COMPANY, WILLI All H. 
SPOOR, individually and in his of­
ficial capacity as Chief Executive 
Officer and Chairman of the Board 
of Directors of The Pillsburv Com­
pany, DOUGLAS J. DENNETT, individu­
ally and in his official capacity 
as Manager, Consumer Export, Export 
Division of The Pillsbury Company, 
HARRY FUNK, individually and in 
his official capacity as Vice Presi­
dent for Personnel of The Pillsbury 
Company, HENRY A. BROWN, in his 
official capacity as Manager, Man­
power Services, The Pillsbury Com­
pany, and C. DEAN McNEAL, in his 
official capacity as Group Vice 
President, The Pillsbury Company,

Defendants.

Case No. 4-74-Civ-183

DEFENDANTS' RESPONSE TO 
FIRST INTERROGATORIES 

AFTER REMAND-

Defendant, The Pillsbury Company, responds to Plaintiff's First 

Interrogatories After Remand as follows. It is assumed that these 
interrogatories were directed only to The Pillsbury Company, which 

has sole control over the systems and data bases which are the 
subject of these interrogatories. Several interrogatories are re­
sponded to by designation of documents pursuant to Rule 33(c) and 
those documents are herewith provided to plaintiff as exhibits, but 

are not filed with the Court.

1. State the name of the data base, either as it is referred to 
in the defendant's customary data processing operation, or 
so that it can be uniquely identified in subsequent answers 
or discovery documents.

ANSWER:
1. The primary data base is the Personnel/Pavroll Data Base which

consists of three files: PERMDATABASE/EIC/PERS1 
PERMDATABASE/EIC/PERS2 
PERMDATABASE/EIC/TAX



In addition, there is an index file of microfilm material 

known as the Personnel Department Microfilm Candidate File.

2. Which categories of employees are included in the data base.
A. Hourly, salaried, exempt, non-exempt
B. Currently-employed, terminated (how recently), applicant
C. Specific departments, divisions, locations
D. Permanent, temporary, full time, part time

ANSWER:
2. Personnel/Pavroll Data Base

A. Includes each listed category;
B. Includes active and leave-of-absence employees; also 

terminated salaried and hourly employees for three years and 

terminated temporary employees for 1-1/2 years. /
C. Includes all departments, divisions and locations whose 

payroll is handled by The Pillsbury Company.

D. Includes each listed category.

Microfilm Candidate File
A-D Includes applicant information regardless of ultimate 

position (if any) with The Pillsbury Company.

3. When was the data base first created, and when was it last used. 

ANSWER:
3. Personnel/Pavroll Data Base: Created April, 1970. In current

usage.

Microfilm Candidate File: Created March, 1977. In current

usage.

4. If volumes, version, or generations of the data base are (were) 
periodically produced, or if the data base is (was) periodically 
updated, without a new volume being created, state:
A. How often a copy is produced.
B. Which fields or records are subject to revision.
C. What period of time is covered by each volume.

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D. Specifically in what ways any of the answers to questions 
in Part I differ between volumes of the data base produced 
at different times.

E. Whether complete copies are made and retained, and if so,
F. State by volume, or other unique identifier, the volumes 

still extant, and the contents and dates thereof.
G. Whether changed or purged entries are maintained in 

computer-readable form, and if so,
H. Answer all applicable questions in Part I for any files 

containing these purged entries.
I. Whether a retention schedule dictates how long a copy is 

retained, and if so,
J. Identify any volumes scheduled for destruction within the 

next twelve months.

ANSWER:
4. Personnel/Payroll Data 3ase ; -

A. Copied daily onto tape.
B. All fields and records are subject to revision.
C. Each database copy covers the same time period as the 
preceding copy, plus any updated records, subject to file 

purging of terminated employees.
D. New record types and/or fields have occasionally been 
added, so old data base copies.may not contain exactly the 
same information as the current data base. Any such changes 
can be identified only by examination of the data base copies 

over time.
E. Yes.
F. See the attached "Area Sequence List" (Exhibit A).
G-H Copies of the data base prior to updating are maintained 

as described above.

I. Yes.

J. None

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Microfilm Candidate File
A. Periodic backup copies- are made.

B. All.
C. Current file contains records since inception of file.

D. No difference.

E. Yes.
F. The copies of this file are a part of the dumps of all time­

sharing files. Existing copies can be determined by exam­
ining the timesharing "Systems Saves" which, pursuant to 
Rule 33(c) will be made available to plaintiff for inspec­
tion .

G-H No.
I. Yes.
J. Retention policy has been that month-end copies are retained 

for one year; mid-month copies are retained for six months; 
other copies are retained for one week. However, ho further 
month-end or mid-month tapes are scheduled for destruction 
in the next 12 months.

Provide each of the following for all fields found within each 
different record structure within the data base. In the alter­
native, a "record layout" customarily used in defendant’s com­
puter operation may be produced, providing it supplies pach 
requested item of information in a clear, legible and unambigu­
ous format.

A. Its location within the record.
B. A brief description of its contents.
C. A brief description of its function and significance, if 

not immediately obvious.
D. The physical representation of its contents (character, 

zoned decimal, packed decimal, signed decimal, binary, 
floating .point, location of assumed decimal point, loca­
tion of sign, right- or left-justified, strictly numeric, 
numeric with blanks, etc.)

E. The sign codes used for decimal fields (i.e., IBM Standard 
hexadecimal "C" or "F" for plus, hex "D" for minus).

F. The status of the field: whether data was always entered,
was sometimes entered (was optional), or was never entered
(space was provided, but field was not used).

G. For each field which contains "coded" entries, such as a 
field for race containing a "1" for white and a "2" for 
black, or numbers representing department titles, provide 
a translation table which contains each possible entry and 
its English translation or literal meaning, unless supplied 
with previous answers. If such translation table exists
in computer-readable form, answer all appropriate questions 
in Part I concerning the files which contain the table.

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6. (A) If the file is composed of records differing in format 
from one another, provide the record layout for each 
possible record entry, (c.f. question 5) and state how the 
format appropriate to any particular record can be ascer­
tained .

(B) If the file is "hierarchical" in structure (i.e., it
contains an unpredictable number of minor-level records 
related in some manner to a preceeding major-level 
record), describe in detail the structure of the file, 
and state how different record types and levels can be 
recognized.

ANSWERS TO #5 and #6:
5-6. See attached Record Layout Prints (Exhibit B) and database

structure chart (Exhibit C) for Personnel/Payroll Data Base and at­
tached data field list (Exhibit D) for Microfilm Candidate File. 

Numerous fields in the Personnel/Payroll Data Base are encoded, 

and code tables are not centrally maintained. Many of these fields 

are irrelevant to the present lawsuit. The Pillsbury Company will 

provide code tables for relevant fields as soon as possible after 
receipt from plaintiff of a list of fields for which codes are 
relevant. Codes for the Microfilm Candidate file are attached 

(Exhibit E ).

7. State the:
A. Logical record length.

B. Physical record length (blocksize)
C. Record format (fixed length, variable length, spennea, 

blocked).
D. File organization (sequential, indexed, direct, VSAM).
E. State the approximate number of logical records in the 

data base.
F. Describe the storage device or medium.

G. With reference to the fields enumerated in the answer
to Question 6, describe the order in which records in the 
data base are sorted.

H. Recording code (EBCDIC, ASCII, BCD, hollerith, column 
binary) .

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ANSWER:

7. Personnel/Payroll Data Base

A. See attached "Record Analyzer" (Exhibit F ) .

B. 448 Word.

C. Variable length.

D. Random Access.

E. See attached "Record Analyzer" (Exhibit F ) •
F. Mass storage removable disks; copies on tape

G. As specified in record -layouts.

H. BCD

Microfilm Candidate File

A. 72 characters.

B. 320 module.

C. Variable.
D. Sequential.

E. 250.
F. Disk.

G. Candidate File Number.

H. ASCII.

8. State the programming language or retrieval system used to 
create and access the data base.

ANSWER:
8. Personnel/Payroll Data Base: Honeywell IDS.

Microfilm Candidate File: H-6000 Assembly Language.

9. If on magnetic tape, state:
A. The density (bits per inch).

B. The number of tracks (7, 9).
C. If 7 track, the recording technique (parity, translation, 

conversion, character code).

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D. The form of the internal identifying labels (IBM 
Standard, IBM 1400 series, Burroughs standard, 
none).

E.

ANSWER:

If in ASCII block format, the form of the block pre­
fixes .

9. A. 1600 BPI

B. Some old tapes may be 7-track 300 BPI, but if copied

will become 9 track 1600 BPI.

C. Not applicable.

D. Honeywell Standard.

E. Not ASCII.

10. Briefly describe each of the defendant's computer facilities, 
including:

A. Manufacturer.

B. Model number.

C. Name and release of operating system.

D. Type and number of each input/output device. ,

E.

ANSWER:

Data bases from Part I which reside on the system.

10. A. Honeywell

B. 6083

C. GCOS Release I

D. I/O devices are as follows:
Tape handlers - MTH 505 
Disk drives - DSU 191 
Card reader - CRZ 201 
Off-line page printers - PPS0510

11. If the defendant's current computer system is not capable of
copying each of the date bases identified in Part I according 
to the following parameters, state why not, and state what 
alternatives are available for each.

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A. Onto magnetic tape

B. 9 track

C. At 800, 1600, 6250 BPI

D. In EBCDIC character code

E.

ANSWER:

With IBM standard OS labels.

11. A. Yes

B. Yes

C. Yes - 1600

D-E No - because Honeywell (not IBM) system is utilized.

12. For each information retrieval program or report generator (i.e., 
software capable of producing a multitude of different reports, 
depending on control information entered) available, whether pur­
chased, leased, or written locally,

A. Identify its name or title, vendor or author, and any 
optional features installed.

B. Identify which of the data bases named in Part I the program 
operates on, and what type of reports it is capable of 
generating. ■*

C.

ANSWER:

Identify and describe all documents, reference manuals, 
or texts which describe the program and its operation.

12. A. The only relevant generalized report programs are the

IDS Query System, authored by GE and The Pillsbury Company and

the Flexible Retrieval System (C0362) authored by The Pillsbury

Company.

B. Operate on the Personnel/Pavroll Data Base; will retrieve

and sort information from that Data Base.

C. Honeywell maintains documentation on the IDS Query System.
The only available documentation for the Flexible Retrieval 

Program is The Pillsbury Company's standard user and program 

documentation.

-8-



13. If defendant contracts with an outside service bureau or agency 
for processing of data bases identified in Part I,

A. Describe those services completely.

B. Indicate which data bases identified in Part I are in the 
possession of such bureau or agency.

C.

ANSWER:

Answer all parts of questions 14 and 15 concerning the 
bureau's data processing capabilities.

13. Not applicable.

14. Give the name, current business address, job title, and job 
function of:
A. The manager of defendant's data processing operation.

B. Each analyst or programmer who has intimate knowledge of 
the contents or function of each data base identified in 
Part I (specify which).

C.
ANSWER:

The person(s) who answered these interrogatories.

14. A. Larry Rivers, Manager, Information Processing.

B. Ruth Ladner, Vic Erdmann, Larry Rivers and Bill Jewett

are familiar with the Personnel/Payroll Data Base. Richard

Kozak is familiar with the Microfilm Candidate File.

C. See (B) above.

The Pillsbury Company accepts and adopts the foregoing Responses

in reliance on the special knowledge and competence of employees at 
The Pillsbury Company charged with responsibility for maintenance 

and supervision of Pillsbury's computerized data processing operations

THE PILLSBURY COMPANY

By i C.W lV t .-. ,> -
•! Raymond'- Dittrich 

Jvice President-Law
Subscribed and sworn to before 
me this //^ /-day of January, 1978.

- L o  (.5 —  (( ' ('! A >\v i' £
______ __ ___ 0

Notary P’itilc. !■!■:.:.v :
My Ccr.-r. - by ••• - .

-9-



L /V ^  I J  I S.- i-> t

********************* INPUT /OUTPUT UFVICES ***** *************** PAGE 07

r>

MAGNETIC TAPE— R E CL OF TAPE, USUALLY 2400 FIT. LONG. EASIEST METHOD OF TRANSPORTING 
PATA7— LAN HAVE 7 OP 9 TRACKS, AND DENSITY OF 800 OR 1600 BITS-PEK-INCH(BP I ).
SOMETIMES HAS INTERNAL LABELS WRITTEN 10 IDENTIFY DATA SETS ON THE TAPE.

DTP EC I ACCESS DEVICES— MAGNETIC SURFACES WHICH ROTATE AT SEVERAL THOUSAND PPM, TAKING ANY CHARACTER 
WRITTEN T m a GNET IC ALLY) ON THEIR SURFACES INSTANTLY ACCESSIBLE. MAKES POSSIBLE M  R U N E  RESERVATION 
SYSTEMS. CAN LOOK I IKE A STACK OF PHONO RECORDS WITH SPACES INBETWEEN(DISKS), A HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL 
DRUM(DRUMS), OP A SERIES OF CARDS ATTACHED TO A DRUM { DATA CELL). CAPACITIES: 10,000,000+ CHARACTERS.

PUNCH C ARDS —  C AT DBOAR D CARDS WITH HOLES PUNCHED TO REPRESENT DATA. PREPARED UN A KEYPUNCH MACHINE OR 
A CARD PUNCH, AND READ BY A CARD READER. BULKY TO CARRY AROUND, SLOW TO PUNCH AND READ.

PUNCHED PAPER IAPF— LUNG STRIP UF PAPER WITH HOLES PUNCHED ON IT. USUALLY PUNCHED BY A COMPUTER UK 
TEIETYPF TYPE MACH INF. NOT OFTEN USED FOR PAYROLL OR PERSONNEL RECORDS.

OPTICAL CHARACTER READERS— MACHINE WHICH READS AND WRITES CHARACTERS WRITTEN IN MAGNETIC INK. CAN READ
p r i n t e d  C h a r a c t e r s , u p m a r k s  p l a c e d  in s p e c i f i c  p l a c e s  o n a p a p e r i i .e . l s a t - t y p e a n s w e r  s h e e t s ).

PREMIERS— USED Tl PRINT. USUALLY HAVE 120 OP 132 COLUMNS ACROSS THE PAGE, AND CAN PRINT AT UP TO 1200 LI NT S/MI MUTE.

TERMINALS--USFD TO COMMUNICATE DIRECTLY WITH THE CCMPUTER-WILL HAVE A TYPEWRITER-LIKE KEYBOARD, AND EITHER A 
---PRINTING MECHANISM OR a VIDEO SCREEN. THESE RAMRLINGS WERE PREPARED ANC EDITED USING A TERMINAL.

MICRQEILM— COMPUTER OUTPUT WHICH IS PLACED ON MICROFILM INSTEAD OF PAPER. MUCH MORE CONVENIENT TO STORE AND
SERVE , BUT CAN ONLY BE READ WITH A SPECIAL TYPE READER. DATA CANNOT BE RE-ENTERED INTO THE COMPUTER.

c

c

f

c

f

********************* SAMPLE PRC1 GRAM S ***** * **** *********** ** * *** * *  * * * * * * * * * *  *****

THF 3 EXAMPLES BELOW TAKE A FILE WITH EARNINGS DATA AND IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION,
AND SORT,COPY, AND PRINT (DUMP) IT. EACH EXAMPLE USES A STANDARD UTILITY PROGRAM WHICH TAKES ONLY 
MINISCULF PROGRAMMING TO RUN. EACH CAN BF DONE BY A DEFENDANT COMPANY WITH LITTLE TO NO EFFORT,
DEPENDING ON WHETHER THE COMPANY'S LAWYER OR COMPUTER PROGRAMMER DOFS THE WORK. THE NOTES FOLLOWING 
EACH EXAMPLE FXPLAIM WHAT EACH LINE IS FOR, ALTHOUGH I DON'T REALLY EXPECT ANYONE TO READ THEM.

THE FIRST SECTION IS A "RECORD LAYOUT" UF THE FILE, WHICH EXPLAINS THE LOCATION AND CONTENTS 
OF FACH FIRED. THE PICTURE COLUMN IS A REPRESENTATION OF THE CONTENTS OF THE FIELD IN A COMMONLY-USED 
FORMAT: A "9" MEANS A NUMBFR APPEARS IN THE COLUMN, A "X" MEANS A NUMBER OR A LETTER, A "V" IS AN 
IMPLIED DECIMAL POINT, AND A NUMBER INSIDE PARENTHESES (22) IS A REPETITION FACTOR APPLIED TO THE PRECEEOING 
CHARACTER .

(



RECORD LAYOUT FOR DATA SET "PAYROLL .MASTER” PAGE
LiiLUMELS EifLU_L!AM£ £JL£IUB£ tlQ*£HARS.
1-4 BADGE NUMBER xxxx 4
5 RACE 9 I
6- 1 l SENIORITY DATE 999999 6
12-13 DEPARTMENT 99 2
14-20 1965 EARNINGS 9 9 9 9 9 V 9 9 7
21-27 1966 FARMINGS ii 7
20 — 34 1967 EARNINGS If 7
35-4 1 1968 EARNINGS II 7
42-48 1969 EARNINGS II 7
40-55 1970 FARMINGS II 7
56-62 1971 FARMINGS II 7
63-69 1972 EARNINGS II • 7
70-91 NAME X ( 2 2 ) 22

**** ***** ******* SORT EXAMPLE *****************

//SORT EXEC SORT
//SORTIN' ID DlSP=OLD,DSN=PAYROLL.MASTER 
//SORTOUT DO 01SP=(NEW,CATLG) ,DSN = PAYROLL.MASTEP.DEPT 
// SPACE=(CYL»2)* U N I T = 0 I S K 
//SYS IN DO *

SORT FIFLOS=(ll»2»CH»A)»FILSZ=E2000 
//SORTWKOI DO UNIT-DISK*SPACE=(CYL»I)
//S0RTWK02 DO UNIT=DISK,SPACF = (CY L,1)
//SORTWKO3 DO UN IT = DISK,SPACE = <C Y L ,l)

NOTES:::
S0°TIN IS TUF INPUT FILE WHICH IS TO BE SORTED
SORTOUT IS THE OUTPUT FILE, WHERE THE SORTED DATA SET WILL BE PLACED
SYSIN IS THE SET OF CONTROL INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SORTING PROGRAM . . . .  rr,„T
SORT FICLOS IS THF INSTRUCTION IDENTIFYING THE FIELDS WHICH DETERMINE THE ORDER OF THE SORT 

12 IS THE BEGINNING COLUMN OF THE FIELD 
2 IS THE LENGTH OF THE CONTROL FIELD 
CH SIGNIFIES THAT THE FIELDS CONTAINS CHARACTERS 
A DETERMINES THAT THE RECORDS WILL BE SORTED IN ASCENDING ORDER 
E IL S 7 =F 2 000 INDICATES THAT THERE APE ABUUT 2000 RECORDS IN THE FILE 

SORTWK01-03 A RF TEMPORARY ST UR AGE AREAS ON A DISK FOR THE FILE AS IT IS BEING SORTED

********************* COPY EXAMPLE ****************************

//COPY EXEC PGM = IEQGENER 
//SYSPRINT DO SYSOUT= A
//SYSUT1 DD D ISP = OLD,DSNA ME = PAYROLL.MASTER.DEPT 
/ / SYS UT2 DD D ISP=(NEW,KEEP),UNIT=TAPfc,LABEL=(1,SLI, 
// DSMAMF=PAYPOLL.MASTER.DEPI,VOL=SER=LDF023

NOTTS*••
SYSPRINT IS THE PRINTER WHERE MESSAGES FROM THE COPY PROGRAM ABOUT WHAT IT DID ARE WRITTEN. 
SYSUT1 IS THE NAME UF THE DATA SET TO BE COPIFD--IT IS THE OUTPUT FROM THE SORT PROGRAM ABCVF. 
SYSUT2 IS THE NAME OF THE NEW DATA S ET(T HE COPY). IT IS PLACED ON A MAGNETIC TAPE REFL, WITH

THF SAME NAMF AS THE ORIGINAL FILE.
THIS EXAMPLE COPIFS A DATA SET EXACTLY AS IT IS. TO COPY ONLY SELECTED FIELDS, LITTLE ADDITIONAL

PROGRAMMING WOULD BE REQUIRED.