CHERYL L. LEVITT, Complainant,

VS.

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, and JOHN CRIST, Respondents.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Complainant, Cheryl Levitt, timely filed verified complainant CP# 09-85-13488 with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission on September 3, 1985, alleging a violation of Iowa Code section 601A.6, discrimination in employment on the basis of sex (pregnancy) in that Respondents failed to hire her on or about August 20, 1985.

2. The complaint was served on the Respondents, General Electric Company of Burlington, Iowa and Fairfield, Connecticut and John Crist on September 20, 1985.

3. The complaint was investigated, probable cause found, conciliation unsuccessfully attempted and Notice of Hearing issued on December 31, 1986.

4. Complainant had been a utility operator for General Electric from October 1980 to July 1982. The last six months of that period she was a publication clerk. She was laid off and her right to recall expired in July of 1983. In 1985, she heard that General Electric was recalling prior employees. She called the office to talk with Crist. He was on vacation, so she talked with the secretary, Cathy Garrison. This was around August 3, 1985. Garrison agreed to leave a message for Crist who was to return around August 18. On August 19, Levitt called Crist and discussed returning to work for General Electric. Crist made an appointment for a physical examination of Levitt with the nurse, Dora Horn, for August 20.

5. Levitt kept her appointment with Nurse Horn who then examined her. Levitt was pregnant at the time. The nurse asked her due date. Levitt said it was October 12, 1985.

6. Levitt also was given an appointment with the plant doctor for the 21st at 2:00 p.m.

7. Before she could keep her appointment with the plant doctor, Crist called Levitt and informed her that he had not realized she was pregnant and if he had known he would not have offered her the position. Crist canceled her appointment with the plant doctor and did not hire Levitt.

8. At this time, Levitt was employed at the Summer Street Road Animal Clinic as a secretary-receptionist. She performed a variety of tasks with no restrictions. She wanted to work at General Electric because the pay and benefits were better. She continued to work at the Clinic after General Electric failed to hire her.

9. Levitt delivered her baby on October 23, 1985. She was released to work in November with no restrictions. She was off work approximately four weeks.

10. The end of January 1986, Crist called Levitt and offered her a job. She started working for General Electric on February 3, 1986, at a rate of $10.60 per hour. She worked on the second shift, as a utility operator, the same position she held in her earlier employment with General Electric. Levitt required no retraining in order to assume these duties. She was laid off again approximately August 15, 1986.

11. General Electric provided disability insurance immediately upon hire for its employees for up to 26 weeks. The rate was 60% of weekly pay up to $225.00 a week maximum. Benefits started on the 8th day of disability or first day of either hospitalization as a bed patient or surgery performed in an approved ambulatory surgical facility, whichever was earlier. Benefits for disability caused by pregnancy or complications of pregnancy were the same. (See Complainant's Exhibit 2).

12. General Electric also had an Individual Development Program (IDP) under which they reimbursed tuition expense for approved courses. Eligibility occurred when a full-time employee completed at least six months of service at the time the course started, or when an employee was laid off, but retained recall rights. (See Complainant's Exhibit 3).

13. Levitt did attend Southeastern Community College beginning August 19, 1986. The tuition paid was $858.00. She was laid off August 15, 1986, and did not have recall rights. She did not apply for the program while working.

14. Levitt retained Attorney Goddard to assist her with this Complaint. His fees amounted to $270.00 (See Complainant's Exhibit 5).

15. The probable starting date had Levitt been hired was September 3, 1985.

16. Levitt earned $653.63 at the Animal Clinic in 1986 prior to starting with General Electric. She was earning $5.25 an hour. During the period September 3, 1985 through December 31, 1985, she earned $2,912.5 1. She worked less than full-time for about a month prior to delivery, in order to train her replacement on the job and was off work for four weeks after delivery.

17. Mark Miller, a prior General Electric employee (1974- 1977), was hired on September 22, 1985, as a temporary employee and worked until August of 1986. He does not recall Crist asking him specifically if he would be available for the entire temporary period.

18. Daniel Wood who was on lay off from the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP) was hired by General Electric for temporary employment. During this period he was recalled and quit his job with General Electric to return to the IAAP. He doesn't remember whether Crist asked him specifically as to his continued availability. He required no training for the temporary work. [Tr. R. 60]

19. Steven Hill, another employee of IAAP on lay off, applied and was hired for a temporary position with General Electric. He started approximately the last week in October and left the last week in November when he was recalled by IAAP. Hill had worked for General Electric 8 years ago. He required no training for his temporary work. [Tr. R. 88]

20. The Burlington operation of General Electric, since 1961, was the manufacturing of switch gears, an electrical distribution business. In 1983, as a result of economic conditions, they undertook a study which resulted in reorganization. Layoffs resulted. In January 1984, the business was restructured and a vacuum interrupter operation was brought into the Burlington plant from Philadelphia. In January 1985, the low voltage product line was transferred from North Carolina to Burlington and the Burlington switchboard product line of about 200 employees transferred to Philadelphia. This transition necessitated hiring temporary employees. Crist was requested to consider first individuals with recall rights, then individuals with General Electric experience but no recall rights and next people with manufacturing experience. This order was to minimize retraining. The temporary jobs were expected to last through December 1985.

21. Respondents state that their failure to hire Levitt was not based on her pregnancy, but was based on the fact that she would not be available to work during the entire period of the temporary employment.

22. Respondents also state that they would not have hired anyone who either indicated, or the company learned, would not be available. However the G.E. employee relations specialist did not ask applicants about continued availability (Tr.pp. 197-198), and none of the applicants who were hired could recall the Crist asked them about availability. (Tr.pp.49,79,87,140) .

23. Respondents further state that had Levitt's due date been after December 31, 1985, she would have been hired.

24. One-hundred sixteen (116) temporary employees were hired during this transition time. Prior to that, 88 employees were recalled. The last temporary employee hired in 1985 was hired on November 18, 1985. All but 3 completed their temporary term of employment.

25. Ellen Halton-Dean, a former employee, was called back to work. She held another full-time job and Crist expressed his concern for her ability to handle both jobs. She continued working until August 1986. She testified that the length of training required depended upon the person and task. The training could last for a couple hours to a couple of weeks.

26. Dora L. Horn, Plant Nurse, has been employed by Respondents for 18 years. She interviewed Levitt on August 20, 1985. When Horn found out Levitt was pregnant and that her expected delivery date was October 12, she told Crist. From her experience, Horn believed the average time off because of childbirth was six weeks. She did not discuss the amount of time off with Levitt.

27. Dolhancyk, employee relations manager for General Electric, testified that if Levitt had been applying for a permanent position the unavailability because of pregnancy would not have made a difference.

28. John Crist was a specialist in employee relations for General Electric during the time at issue. After he was informed by Horn that Levitt was pregnant and her delivery date was in October, he assumed she would be unavailable for work for possibly six weeks and that under those circumstances it would not be feasible to hire her.

29. To qualify for the IDP program, it was necessary to be a full-time employee for six or more months or to have recall rights. To have recall rights, the employee was required to have 52 consecutive weeks of employment prior to lay off. It was also required that employees absent for more than two weeks during the 52 consecutive weeks have the excess of two weeks deducted from their total number of weeks.

30. The utility operators' area of work included a variety of jobs.

31. Crist testified that during this period of time he posted jobs on almost a daily basis and that it was difficult to fill some jobs because employees did not want to transfer into a temporary job. He said that in a few cases he even hired off the street.

32. Levitt did not again contact Crist. The next contact was when Crist called her in January 1986 to see if she was available to start work in February.

33. The rate of pay for employees starting in September 1985 was $9.655, for first shift work.

34. The temporary employees hired in 1985 were covered by the company's insurance policy.