Roberts v. General Mills, Inc., Civ. No. C 71-97.

• Decision Date: 21 September 1971
• Docket Number: Civ. No. C 71-97.
• Parties: Howard B. ROBERTS, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL MILLS, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

337 F. Supp. 1055

Howard B. ROBERTS, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL MILLS, INC., Defendant.

Civ. No. C 71-97.

United States District Court, N. D. Ohio, W. D.

September 21, 1971.

Jack Gallon, Toledo, Ohio, for plaintiff.

John G. Mattimoe, Toledo, Ohio, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

DON J. YOUNG, District Judge.

This cause came to be heard upon defendant's motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Several exhibits and an affidavit were submitted by the defendant and thus, this motion to dismiss will be treated as a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56 as provided for in Rule 12(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Jurisdiction of this Court is invoked under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., which prohibits discrimination by employers based on sex.

Defendant, in its motion to dismiss, admits for purposes of the motion only, the factual allegations of the complaint.

In October, 1965, plaintiff entered into the employment of defendant in the processing department where cereal is made.

On March 5, 1970, a memorandum was issued by General Mills to all employees. Rule 3 of the memorandum stated that in jobs where there is exposed food, men will wear hats and women will wear hairnets. By March 7, 1970, plaintiff's hair had grown to a point where a hat did not cover all of his hair. He asked that he be allowed to wear a hairnet.

On June 18, 1970, plaintiff received a written reprimand from defendant. Again he asked to wear a hairnet and was informed that he could not because of the plant rules.

On July 18, 1970, plaintiff was discharged from employment at General Mills because a hat was not sufficient to cover his hair.

The basic issue which is presented here is one of discrimination in classification of employees on the basis of sex. That is, the plaintiff complains that General Mills will not allow him to grow his hair to the same length as the hair of the women in the same department, and because he did, he lost his job.

Defendant has argued convincingly for the need for quality control in food processing. There can be little dispute over the necessity of having regulations which insure that sanitary conditions are maintained. Thus, the rules requiring clean clothing, no beards, etc. are clearly a reasonable means of assuring the quality of the product. But it is not these reasonable measures which are being assailed here. The gravamen of the plaintiff's amended complaint is focused clearly on what class of employees may wear hairnets. Implicit within this, of course, is an attack upon the reasonableness of any such classification.

Defendant argues that the classification is reasonable in light of the hazard of possible contamination. It does not appear that contamination could occur any more easily from a man's hair contained within a hairnet than a woman's. Therefore, it would seem that the insistence on men wearing hats is based upon grounds other than sanitation.

Defendant further argues that an employer has an absolute right to make such rules as he wishes regarding his employees. This is true only to a degree, and great perspicacity is not required to realize that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 negates an employer's right to discriminate, classify, or otherwise make rules which are based upon race, religion, sex or national origin.

Even the cases cited by the defendant indicate that a reasonableness test must be met in order to sustain an employer's classification when it involves one of those areas.

It can reasonably be inferred that in a business dealing directly with the public, a...