State Backs Worker’s Right to Read the Good Book on Breaks

Robert Grace, dressed in white overalls and wearing a straw hat, looked at ease Friday as he gently stroked his paint brush back and forth on a wall of Baker Elementary School in Southeast San Diego.

But while he paints to make a living, the 43-year-old Grace’s real love is for his Greater Israelite Church of God and Christ in Southeast San Diego, where he is a Pentecostal minister. And therein lies a conflict with the San Diego Unified School District.

Grace’s habit of reading his Bible alone during work breaks resulted in his school district supervisor not hiring him on a permanent basis, he contends, despite his perfect score on a performance test and has ranking at the top of a list of 33 candidates.

On Wednesday, the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission agreed, awarding Grace $11,700 in compensatory damages and pay lost during a three-month layoff imposed in 1985, when he reached the maximum number of hours allowed to be worked under a temporary, as-needed classification. Almost three years after Grace filed a complaint, the commission ruled that the district had violated Grace’s civil rights through religious discrimination.

Denies He Was Antisocial

Grace, leaning on a ladder Friday, said his supervisors claimed “I was antisocial. Everybody I work with knows that I’m not antisocial.”

A nearby fellow worker concurred, yelling, “That’s right!”

“I was somewhat relieved but not totally relieved” by the commission’s decision, said the soft-spoken Grace, a father of three. “How can you feel happy working at a place by going to the extremes like I did?”

While lauding the award, Grace said the money did not offset the emotional stress he underwent while awaiting the outcome.

During a hearing on Grace’s complaint, Charles Mails, who was his supervisor from 1976 to 1982, claimed that he did not hire Grace on a permanent basis because Grace had used numerous sick-leave absences during that time to pursue his ministerial career as a sideline.

Melanie Petersen, deputy general counsel for the school district, said she will recommend Tuesday that the district appeal the compensatory damages--$6,000 of the $11,700.

In its decision, the agency stipulated that the total award is to increase by 10% annually as long as the suit remains under litigation, including appeal.

“It’s a laugh that they don’t think it has cost me some emotional problems,” Grace said. “A person has to go through something like this to know the mental anguish.”

Grace’s problem began in 1984, when he returned to working for the district as a temporary employee after having taken two years off to pursue a full-time position as a minister. He had been employed on a temporary basis as a painter for 11 years for the district before resigning in 1982.

But the financial strains of a being a minister proved too much for him and his family.

Permanent Spot

When he returned to the district as a temporary employee, Grace said, Mails promised to later hire him for a permanent spot. Grace claimed that Mails later told him in interviews that being isolated from his co-workers while he read his Bible represented a conflict of interest.

“When I worked for my other two supervisors before him, nobody ever made a comment about it,” Grace said. “I only heard it when he complained about it.”

During the hearing, Mails denied the accusations and stuck to his position that Grace’s previous record of missing days did not make him a good prospect for a full-time position.

Grace countered that he had a series of illnesses, and on several occasions also had to take care of family members who were sick.

Petersen called Grace a fine employee and said: “There’s no hard feelings on the district’s part.”

Grace added that he also has no bitterness toward the district. “I wasn’t doing this because I was trying to be a crusader. I was doing it because I had been done wrong,” Grace said. For now, he said, “I think I’ve been treated like a prince of a guy.”

Grace is approaching the end of his one-year probation period and is expected to be hired permanently.