E.E.O.C. v. Joslyn Mfg. and Supply Co.

• Decision Date: 09 May 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-1634,82-1634
• Citation: 706 F.2d 1469
• Parties: 31 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1187, 31 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 33,595, 4 Employee Benefits Ca 1465 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JOSLYN MFG. AND SUPPLY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1469

706 F.2d 1469

31 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1187,

31 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 33,595,

4 Employee Benefits Ca 1465

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JOSLYN MFG. AND SUPPLY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 82-1634.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Nov. 2, 1982.

Decided May 9, 1983.

Karen MacRae Smith, E.E.O.C., Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.

Michael A. Warner, Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellee.

Before CUMMINGS, Chief Judge, ESCHBACH, Circuit Judge, and SWYGERT, Senior Circuit Judge.

CUMMINGS, Chief Judge.

In 1976, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq., does not require that an employer who provides male and female employees with insurance against loss of income when they are disabled by illness or injury also provide female employees with insurance against loss of income when they are disabled by pregnancy. General Electric Company v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 97 S.Ct. 401, 50 L.Ed.2d 343. Some two years later, Congress overruled that holding by enacting the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Pub.L. No. 95-555, 92 Stat. 2076, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e(k) (1981). The issue before us on this appeal is whether in light of that Act, Title VII now requires that an employer who voluntarily insures male and female employees against the cost of hospital care for their dependents when they are injured or become sick also insure male employees against the cost of hospital care for their wives when they become pregnant. The district court, 524 F.Supp. 1141, below held that Title VII does not so require and granted summary judgment in favor of defendant. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I

Defendant Joslyn Manufacturing Company ("Joslyn") insures its employees against the cost of health care for themselves, their spouses, and their unmarried children. Employees do not pay for this insurance; it is provided free of charge as part of their employment compensation. The insurance covers expenses--viz., hospital room and board charges, surgical fees, doctors' fees for non-surgical hospital care--for treatment of all illnesses and injuries requiring hospitalization. It also covers expenses--viz., obstetric surgical fees, hospital room and board charges, doctors' fees for non-surgical hospital care--for childbirth and all other pregnancy-related conditions requiring hospitalization.

Joslyn's insurance plan pays female employees the same benefits when they are hospitalized because of pregnancy as when they--or male employees--are hospitalized because of illness or injury. Wives of male employees, however, are treated differently. Male employees receive no reimbursement for doctors' fees when their wives are hospitalized because of pregnancy and lesser reimbursement for room and board and other miscellaneous charges than when their wives are hospitalized because of illness or injury. In addition, insurance coverage of obstetric surgical fees and pregnancy-related hospital costs for wives of male employees begins and ends nine months later than insurance coverage of all other health costs for all insureds. Coverage for pregnant wives of male employees begins one year after the first day of employment and ends nine months after the last day of employment. Coverage of all health care costs for all other insureds, however--for hospitalization due to illness or injury and for hospitalization of pregnant female employees--begins three months after the first day of employment and ends on the last day of employment.

Plaintiff Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("the Commission") commenced this action for injunctive relief against Joslyn, claiming that Joslyn's insurance plan violates Section 703(a) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. Section 703(a) prohibits "discriminat[ion] against any individual with respect to his compensation ... because of such individual's ... sex ...." 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(a)(1), infra, n. 1. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act ("the Act") amends Section 701 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e) by adding subsection (k) which provides in relevant part that

[t]he terms "because of sex" or "on the basis of sex" include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; and women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes, including receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work ....

42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e(k) (1981).

In its complaint before the district court, the Commission charged that Joslyn's insurance plan discriminates against female employees on the basis of their sex in two respects: (1) coverage for female employees ends nine months before coverage for pregnant wives of male employees and (2) coverage for husbands and children of female employees ends nine months before coverage for pregnant wives of male employees. The Commission also charged that the plan discriminates against male employees on the basis of their sex in two respects: (1) male employees receive lesser health insurance coverage for their wives' pregnancies than female employees receive for their husbands' illnesses and injuries and (2) coverage for pregnancies of wives of male employees begins nine months later than coverage for illnesses and injuries of husbands of female employees. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant Joslyn on all four charges made by the Commission. The Commission has appealed only the judgment against it on the claims that Joslyn's insurance plan discriminates against male employees, however, so that the only question before us on this appeal is whether Title VII, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, requires that Joslyn provide male employees the same insurance benefits when their wives are hospitalized because of pregnancy as it presently provides them when their wives are hospitalized because of injury or illness.

II

Congress enacted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in order to overrule the Supreme Court's decision in General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 97 S.Ct. 401, 50 L.Ed.2d 343. Gilbert was a suit against an employer by a class of women employees. The employer provided employees insurance against loss of income when they became disabled due to illness or injury. The women employees alleged that the insurance plan discriminated against them on the basis of their sex because it did not cover disabilities resulting from pregnancy. The Supreme Court held otherwise because women employees were insured against the same kinds of disabilities as male employees and there was no evidence that the insurance was worth more to male employees than to female employees. In fact, there was substantial evidence suggesting just the opposite. See 429 U.S. at 130-131 & n. 9, 97 S.Ct. at 405-406 & n. 9.

The sponsors and supporters of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act were unhappy with the Gilbert decision because they feared it would weaken the position of women in the nation's work force and jeopardize the financial security of working women and the families they support. If Title VII could be construed to allow an employer who insures employees against disabling illnesses and injuries to deny benefits to a woman employee disabled because of pregnancy, it might also be construed to allow an employer to require that women employees take unpaid leaves of absence whenever they become pregnant regardless of their ability to continue working, to reduce the wages and seniority of a woman employee who takes a leave of absence to have a child, and even to discharge a woman employee if she becomes pregnant. See 123 Cong.Rec. 29385 (1977) (statement by Sen. Williams), reprinted in Committee on Labor and Human Resources, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., Legislative History of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 at 61-62 (hereinafter cited as "Legis.Hist."). And if employers are permitted to exclude from coverage under disability insurance plans disabilities resulting from pregnancy, many of the estimated 40 million working women in the United States--and the families they support--might be without any means of support when pregnancy disables them from working.

These fears surface again and again in statements by sponsors and supporters of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and in reports by the congressional committees that recommended its enactment. For example, during the floor debate of the Senate bill, Senator Williams, chief sponsor of the bill and chairman of both the Senate Committee on Human Resources and the Subcommittee on Labor that reviewed it, thus characterized the purpose of the Act:

The bill before us will overcome the Court's decision [in Gilbert ] and provide important protection for women affected by pregnancy as the testimony received by the labor subcommittee well illustrates. It is most important that this protection be provided to our Nation's working women.

It is important because a large number of working women need its protection for their financial security, and the security of their families.

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This legislation is also important because, in the long run, it will permit the 36 million working American women to assume their rightful place, and make a full contribution in our Nation's economy. Too often, sex discrimination has denied working women an opportunity to pursue a career.

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Because of their capacity to become pregnant, women have been viewed as marginal workers not deserving the full benefits of compensation and advancement granted to other workers.

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Thus, the overall effect of discrimination against women because they might become pregnant, or do become pregnant, is to relegate women in general, and pregnant women in...