Secretary Fights Her Transfer : Job Bias Suit Is Filed Against Hughes

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit Thursday against Hughes Aircraft Inc. seeking reinstatement of a public relations secretary who claims she was transferred to another job because she provided information about discrimination at the company to a congressional committee.

The EEOC sought a temporary restraining order in federal court in Los Angeles on behalf of Ann Holbert, who said her job was eliminated shortly after she provided documentation about allegedly discriminatory employment practices to a House subcommittee probing racial discrimination in Southern California’s aerospace industry.

Holbert, who is black, said she provided information to the committee about a Hughes manager who flew the Confederate flag in his office, documentation of discriminatory treatment of several black employees, and biographies of top Hughes managers, none of them black.

Job Eliminated

Less than two weeks after the Oct. 23 hearings, Holbert said she was told that a survey had been taken throughout the company, “and it was decided that only her position was to be eliminated to cut costs,” said EEOC lawyer Alyce Rubinfeld, who filed the complaint.

Rubinfeld said Holbert was offered the choice of being laid off or going to work in the advertising department for a supervisor who has “a track record for terminating employees.” Holbert went off on medical leave after she developed chest pains, Rubinfeld said.

The Beverly Hills/Hollywood chapter of the NAACP recently announced it has formed a task force to investigate Hughes’ hiring policy, noting that only about 7,000 of the company’s 73,000 employees are black.

U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts denied the request for a temporary restraining order but said he would schedule a full hearing on the case soon.