Legislator Hits Proposal on Religious Bias : Catholic Church Should Be Able to Hire Catholic Janitor, Seymour Says

A state agency’s proposal to prohibit religious organizations from discriminating in hiring and firing of non-religious employees with non-religious jobs has encountered serious opposition from a state senator and criticism from a judge in a related court case.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) has circulated a letter signed by 27 members of the state Senate opposing the proposal by the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission. The letter urges the commission to drop its plans for a second public hearing on its proposal to change its regulations to narrow religious institutions’ exemption from discrimination complaints.

The commission announced last month that it believes that people who are discriminated against in jobs “unrelated to religion” should be able to bring complaints before the commission. If it rules that there has been illegal discrimination, the commission can order an employer to rehire workers or give them back pay, among other remedies.

The commission has argued that a state law exempting religious organizations from discrimination suits can be interpreted as applying only to jobs requiring spiritual expertise and authority, such as those of ministers or rabbis.

Judge Upholds Exemption

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Vernon G. Foster ruled last week in a case of a Catholic teacher dismissed by a Lutheran school that the state law is constitutional. And Foster said the Legislature intended it to be a blanket exemption, applying to all jobs.

It was the first court test of the exemption of religious groups, according to Jeffrey A. Berman, who represented Seventh-day Adventist institutions as an intervenor in the Bennett case.

State law generally prohibits bias in employment on the basis of race, color, religious creed, sex, physical handicap and other factors, but exempts religious institutions.

The fair employment commission, which held its first public hearing on its proposal April 10, has tried to assure religious organizations that it will not interfere with their right to choose clergy and other jobs requiring religious training. A second hearing on the issue is scheduled in Oakland on June 13.

Seymour said he is “very strongly” opposed to any modification of the standards. “If a Catholic church wants to hire a Catholic janitor it ought to be able to do that,” Seymour said in an interview.

Will Try to Delay Budget

To put pressure on the commission, Seymour said, he is trying to hold up its budget allocation in a Senate subcommittee. “I don’t know if I can do that, but I am going to try,” Seymour said.

Seymour’s Senate-circulated letter said the proposed repeal of existing regulations would “leave churches, synagogues and all religious organizations open to lawsuits if they refuse to hire a person of a different religious persuasion.”

Steve Owyang, the commission executive and legal affairs secretary, said the letter does not make it clear that the commission has no intention of dictating churches’ choice of clergy. “We will defend their right vigilantly,” Owyang said.

A letter from the commission to the Senate Friday said that the current regulation, which allows religious organizations to discriminate in non-religious hiring “is constitutionally questionable.” Refering to Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the letter continued: “The commission feels that the federal rule, which allows religious employers to discriminate on the basis of religion but not on unlawful bases such as race and ancestry, is the better rule.”

Dismissal Cited

One As an case of alleged job discrimination in California cited by the commission has been , Klein cited that case of Mary Bennett, a Roman Catholic teacher of secular subjects at a Lutheran elementary school in Burbank. Bennett alleged that she was dismissed after seven years employment because of her religion and because she is over 40.

It was in that case, however, that Judge Foster ruled April 24 that the California exemption is constitutional and had some critical words for the commission’s interpretation of it.

of religious discrimination only when the job calls for religious qualifications. Differing with the commission, the judge said the religious nature of the institution is all that counts.

As the commission construes the law, “jurisdiction is to be determined on a job-by-job basis, rather than by the characteristics of the employer,” Foster said. “None of these grounds are persuasive.”