Opinion ID: 390545
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: stop policy

Text: 60 The first policy is the so called mandatory stop policy. This rule requires a flight attendant to stop working as soon as she learns she is pregnant, which is generally before the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. The district court actually found, however, that most women during the early months of pregnancy are able to perform all of the ordinary duties required of a flight attendant. Harriss v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 437 F.Supp. 413, 422 (N.D.Cal.1977). The Fourth Circuit has recently held that Eastern Air Lines' imposition of a similar mandatory stop rule during the first trimester violated Title VII. Burwell v. Eastern Air Lines, 633 F.2d 361 (4th Cir. 1980) (en banc). 61 The justification offered by Pan American, accepted by both the district court and the majority opinion, is that the rule is necessary for safety. The argument is that since a pregnant woman runs a small risk of miscarriage during flight, and since some pregnant women suffer from nausea and fatigue, a pregnant flight attendant might become disabled during an emergency. If that happened, the safety of the passengers could be endangered. Pan American concludes that passengers are safer if pregnant flight attendants are not permitted to work. 62 The flaw in Pan American's logic is the assumption that all the flight attendants who are permitted to fly in the place of grounded, pregnant stewardesses are physically better able to perform their duties than pregnant stewardesses. Since the airline makes no attempt to prevent flight attendants with other potentially disabling conditions from flying, that is an assumption which is certainly not borne out in this record. If, for example, persons suffering from ulcers, hernias, colitis, high blood pressure or heart disease are less likely to become incapacitated during flight than women in the early months of pregnancy, there is nothing in this record to prove it. 63 The leading employment discrimination cases have recognized that to justify a discriminatory policy as either a bona fide occupational qualification or a business necessity, the employer must at least show both a valid purpose and that the policy achieves that purpose: i. e. that there is a factual basis to believe all or substantially all unable to do the job are within the class discriminated against. See Blake v. City of Los Angeles, 595 F.2d 1367, 1376 (9th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 928, 100 S.Ct. 1865, 64 L.Ed.2d 281 (1980); Arritt v. Grisell, 567 F.2d 1267, 1271 (4th Cir. 1977); Diaz v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 442 F.2d 385 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 950, 92 S.Ct. 275, 30 L.Ed.2d 267 (1971); Robinson v. Lorillard Corp., 444 F.2d 791, 798 (4th Cir.), cert. dismissed, 404 U.S. 1006, 92 S.Ct. 573, 30 L.Ed.2d 655 (1971); Weeks v. Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co., 408 F.2d 228 (5th Cir. 1969). Here safety is the claimed purpose, but the policy in question has not been shown to serve it. As one district court has stated in a similar case, the incantation of a safety rationale is not an abracadabra to which this court must defer judgment. Maclennan v. American Airlines, Inc., 440 F.Supp. 466, 472 (E.D.Va.1977). 64 If Pan American desires its claimed safety precautions to withstand attack, it should design procedures, reviews, and tests which measure the ability of all flight attendants who have medical conditions which might affect their performance in an emergency situation. Pan American would then be measuring the person for the job and not the person in the abstract. See Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321, 331-32, 97 S.Ct. 2720, 2728, 53 L.Ed.2d 786 (1977); Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 436, 91 S.Ct. 849, 856, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971). This requirement of equal treatment of all persons who are similar in their ability or inability to work is specifically mandated by the 1978 pregnancy amendment to the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k), and supported by the EEOC guidelines. 1