Opinion ID: 390545
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Pre-Amendment Legality of Pan Am's Seniority Accrual Policy

Text: 48 The district court held that the Supreme Court's analysis in General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 97 S.Ct. 401, 50 L.Ed.2d 343 (1976) foreclosed Plaintiffs' contention that Pan Am's policy of denying seniority accrual during maternity leaves constituted prima facie sex discrimination under Title VII. 437 F.Supp. at 437. The district court issued a Supplemental Memorandum reaffirming its decision on the Seniority Policy in light of the Supreme Court's intervening opinion in Nashville Gas Company v. Satty, 434 U.S. 136, 98 S.Ct. 347, 54 L.Ed.2d 356 (1977). 49 In Satty, the employer required pregnant employees to take a formal leave of absence during which they forfeited their accrued seniority. When an employee returned after such leave, she could get only those positions which no other employee with seniority had requested. The court held that the policy burdened women in a way that men were not burdened and thus that it violated section 703(a)(2) of Title VII. Id. at 139-40, 98 S.Ct. at 349-350. The Satty Court distinguished Gilbert as involving solely the refusal to confer a benefit which men could not obtain. Such a denial of a benefit, as opposed to the imposition of a burden, did not have the effect of depriving women of employment opportunities and thus did not violate section 703(a)(1). 50 In contrast to the policy challenged in Satty, Pan Am's policy does not deprive women of their accumulated seniority, but merely denies continued accrual beyond the first ninety days of maternity leave. The district court, in its Supplemental Memorandum Opinion, noted that seniority is generally earned only for work done. The court concluded that Pan Am's seniority policy is more akin to the denial of a benefit than the imposition of a burden and, therefore, does not constitute a prima facie Title VII violation. 441 F.Supp. at 883. We disagree. 51 The Court in Satty attached considerable weight to the EEOC guidelines dealing with seniority accrual during maternity leave. 434 U.S. at 142 n.4, 98 S.Ct. at 351 n.4. Those guidelines specify that employment policies and practices involving the accrual of seniority shall be applied to disability due to pregnancy or childbirth on the same terms and conditions as they are applied to other temporary disabilities. Id. quoting 29 CFR § 1604.10(b) (1976). Pan Am has established that pregnant flight attendants are sufficiently disabled from performing their emergency safety operations to justify mandatory maternity leave despite its discriminatory impact. Other types of medical or disability leave allow seniority accrual for up to three years. Maternity leave allows only ninety days. 52 Mr. Justice Stevens, in his concurring opinion in Satty, suggested a practical way to distinguish policies which impose burdens, as in Satty, from those which merely deny benefits, as in Gilbert. 434 U.S. at 153-57, 98 S.Ct. at 357-359. He suggested that when the employer has a policy which adversely affects a woman beyond the term of her pregnancy leave, the employer has imposed a burden. Id. at 155, 98 S.Ct. at 358. The named plaintiffs Margaret Feather and Ute Harriss lost approximately 130 days of seniority. Such lapses in seniority may cause losses of 20 to 40 positions on the seniority roster. 437 F.Supp. at 417. A flight attendant who returns from maternity leave will feel the effects of her lowered position on the seniority roster for the remainder of her employment with Pan Am. Because the plaintiffs lost seniority in relation to those fellow employees who were not required to go on maternity leave, or who took other types of medical or disability leave, plaintiffs' ability to obtain desired positions and working conditions was hampered. We conclude, therefore, that Pan Am's Seniority Policy constituted prima facie sex discrimination.
53 Because the district court concluded that the Seniority Policy did not have a discriminatory effect on women, it did not reach the question of a Business Necessity justification. Pan Am had the burden of showing that denial of seniority accrual was necessary to safe and efficient job performance. Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321, 332 n.14, 97 S.Ct. 2720, 2728 n.14, 53 L.Ed.2d 786 (1977). We remand to the district court to decide, (from the record,) whether Pan Am carried its burden. 54