Panel Rejects Bohemian Club Job Settlement

A state commission unanimously rejected a settlement proposed by the Deukmejian Administration that would have allowed the exclusive Bohemian Grove retreat to continue to bar women from most jobs.

The 6-0 decision by the Fair Employment and Housing Commission on Friday revives the state’s sex-discrimination suit against the all-male Bohemian Club, which includes President Reagan and Vice President George Bush among its members.

The club employs a few women in its San Francisco headquarters but none at the Bohemian Grove, a scenic retreat in the redwoods 65 miles north of San Francisco, where some of the nation’s most powerful men gather each summer.

Last month, the Fair Employment and Housing Department proposed a settlement of a suit the state had filed against the club in 1980 on behalf of women who were denied jobs at Bohemian Grove. The proposal would have paid $1,500 to one woman and $570 to others who were denied jobs as food service workers between January, 1978, and October, 1981.

30% Women Goal

The jobs of commissary clerk, bookkeeper and parking lot attendant at Bohemian Grove would have been opened to women under the plan. At the club’s downtown headquarters, clerical, food service and cleaning jobs would have been open to women, except for jobs requiring presence at “all-male associational activities.” The club would have been given an employment goal of 30% women in open jobs.

Otherwise, the club and grove could have continued all-male employment policies.

Mark Guerra, director of the department, said in proposing the settlement that it “responds affirmatively” to the commission’s findings in 1981 that the club was guilty of sex discrimination.

But Robert Barnes of the Employment Law Center, which urged the commission to reject the settlement, said it would have allowed the club “to continue its sexist and discriminatory hiring practices.”

The commission issued its decision after a closed-door session and did not state reasons for rejecting the settlement.