Opinion ID: 390545
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

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

Text: 40 Pan Am's Start Policy (requiring female flight attendants to wait at least sixty days after delivery to resume their duties), as much as its Stop Policy, is a restriction on pregnant women's employment opportunities. deLaurier v. San Diego Unified School Dist., 588 F.2d 674, 677 (9th Cir. 1978). Consequently, it has a discriminatory impact on women and is a prima facie violation of Title VII.
41 The district court noted that the justification for the Start Policy did not receive extensive attention at trial. 437 F.Supp. at 424. The court referred to the testimony of two doctors who felt that the postpartum medical examination should be delayed until six weeks or more after delivery. Id. A doctor testified on behalf of plaintiffs that he preferred an individualized policy but that he could see an argument for putting off the examination until four to six weeks after delivery. Id. The record can be read to support a finding that flight safety requires that flight attendants refrain from work until passing a postpartum examination. While there is no evidence that all women must wait until after the postpartum examination to return to work, the very point of the examination is to assess the risk of disabilities-particularly that of postpartum hemorrhaging. At trial, two doctors testified that until six weeks uterine size and body functions do not sufficiently normalize to permit a reliable judgment on whether a woman is ready to return to work. Until that time, all women risk disability. Pan Am elects to counter that risk with a generalized stop policy. We find no error in that procedure. 42 The district court made no findings about the gravity of the risk to passenger safety of allowing flight attendants to return to work before sixty days after birth, nor did it conclude that Pan Am's Start Policy was necessary in light of that risk. It did not explain why a sixty day period was justified when Pan Am's doctors referred to an examination at six weeks. The mere fact that Pan Am's experts testified that a postpartum examination should occur after six weeks or more does not preclude a finding that a sixty day start policy is justified. The district court may have believed that medical uncertainty and deference to the complexity of Pan Am's ultimate chore of managing risks to passengers, Burwell v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc., 24 Empl.Prac.Dec. (CCH) P 31,213, at 17,379, 633 F.2d 361 (4th Cir. 1980), required it to find that a sixty day start period is justified, even though expert testimony indicated a somewhat shorter period. Accordingly, we remand for a determination of whether Pan Am carried its burden of showing that its sixty day rule was justified as a Business Necessity. 43