Firing of Worker Because of AIDS Barred in Ruling

A state appeals court has ruled for the first time that California firms cannot discharge employees because they have AIDS.

The 3-0 ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura on Monday found that a state law banning job discrimination against the handicapped applies as well to people with AIDS.

“It’s very precedent-setting,” said Jean O’Leary, executive director of a Los Angeles-based National Gay Rights Advocates. With the ruling, “every major corporation in America has been (placed on notice) not to discriminate against people with AIDS,” she said.

The court upheld a $6,000 award by the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission to the estate of John E. Chadbourne, a Santa Barbara man who was refused permission to return to work by Raytheon Electromagnetic Systems Division of Goleta after he was diagnosed with AIDS.

Raytheon put Chadbourne on medical leave in December, 1983, and refused to reinstate him in January, 1984, despite a doctor’s statement that he was fit and posed no health danger to others.

At that point, Chadbourne filed a complaint with the commission.

A quality control analyst, Chadbourne had performed mainly clerical duties and received uniformly high performance reviews and maximum pay increases.

Chadbourne remained on medical leave at 75% salary until his death in January, 1985, at age 36.

In February, 1987, the state employment commission ruled that Raytheon violated a state law forbidding job discrimination against the physically handicapped. Raytheon appealed in Santa Barbara Superior Court, but Judge Patrick McMahon held that Raytheon denied Chadbourne’s plea for reinstatement even though it knew that AIDS could not be transmitted by casual social contact.

A Raytheon spokesman declined to comment on the verdict or a possible appeal.