O.C. Woman’s Bias Case Victory Might Be in Jeopardy

A state court victory won by an Anaheim Hills woman could be jeopardized with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday to hear a separate suit over a Johnson Controls Inc. policy banning women from jobs that might endanger their unborn children.

Lawyers for Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls said that if the Supreme Court eventually upholds the prohibition it might neutralize a state appellate court sex discrimination case brought by Queen Elizabeth Foster, who challenged the policy at the company’s Globe Battery Division in Fullerton.

Foster, 35, who applied for a job at Globe several years ago, sued Johnson Controls, challenging the company’s “fetal protection policy,” which forbids women who are capable of bearing children from working on assembly lines where the air has a high content of toxic lead.

Her lawsuit alleges that the company violated the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, a broad statute that forbids sex discrimination. She claimed the firm would not hire her unless she provided medical evidence that she was sterile.

The state 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana ruled March 2 that the ban discriminated against Foster, saying, among other things, that the policy excluded women based on “unfounded, unscientific stereotypic notions about women.”

Stanley S. Jaspan, a Milwaukee attorney for the company, said Foster’s case now might be in jeopardy because state courts have often looked to federal court decisions for guidance. He also said the California Supreme Court has said the goals of federal and state civil rights laws are identical.

But Foster’s lawyers said the U.S. Supreme Court decision might not affect her case because the lawsuit involves a specific state anti-discrimination law for which there is no federal equivalent.

“The United Auto Workers case was brought under federal law and that does not preempt state law at this point,” said Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, one of Foster’s attorneys.

Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision relates only to the UAW’s appeal of a 1989 federal circuit court ruling in favor of Johnson Controls.

“I think the decision to hear the case is a good idea,” said Alex Sweeten, president of UAW Local 509, which represents 360 workers at a Johnson Controls Globe Battery Division in Fullerton. “Our position is that lead can affect males and females, but there is no ban for males. We need equal treatment for both.”

In Foster’s case, the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission ruled in 1987 that the policy discriminated against women and ordered the company to hire Foster and pay her $16,000 in back wages.

Company attorneys have asked the 4th District Court of Appeal to reconsider its March 2 decision. If the request is denied, Jaspan said, the company will go to the state Supreme Court.