United Air Lines, Inc. v. Industrial Welfare Commission

• Decision Date: 14 January 1963
• Citation: 28 Cal.Rptr. 238,211 Cal.App.2d 729
• Parties: UNITED AIR LINES, INC., a corporation, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. INDUSTRIAL WELFARE COMMISSION of the State of California et al., Defendants and Appellants. Civ. 20097.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 238

28 Cal.Rptr. 238

211 Cal.App.2d 729

UNITED AIR LINES, INC., a corporation, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. INDUSTRIAL WELFARE COMMISSION of the State of California et al., Defendants and Appellants.

Civ. 20097.

District Court of Appeal, First District, Division 1, California.

Jan. 14, 1963.

Hearing Denied March 13, 1963.

Stanley Mosk, Atty. Gen., B. Franklin Walker, Deputy Atty. Gen., San Francisco, for appellants.

Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, San Francisco, for respondent.

BRAY, Presiding Justice.

Defendants appeal from an adverse 'Declaratory Judgment and Decree of Permanent Injunction.'

QUESTIONS PRESENTED.

Is section 9(a) of Order of the Commission 9-57 of 1957 inapplicable to plaintiff----

1. Stewardesses----

(a) because of the preemptive effect of the federal Railway Labor Act;

(b) because of the Commerce Clause of the federal Constitution?

2. Ticket Agents.

3. Stewardesses and Ticket Agents----

(a) because under state law the order is beyond the power of the commission ot issue;

(b) because the procedural steps in regard to the promulgation of such orders was not followed?

RECORD.

In 1957 defendant Industrial Welfare Commission by its Order 9-57 revised Order 9-52 of 1952. Pertinent here is section 9(a) of the revised order which reads: 'No employee shall be required to contribute directly or indirectly from the wage for the purchase or maintenance of uniforms. The term 'uniform' includes wearing apparel and accessories of distinctive design or color required by the employer to be worn by the employee as a condition of employment.' (8 Cal.Admin. Code § 11460(9)(a).)

The Director of Industrial Relations, awaiting an opinion of the Attorney General as to the validity of said section, suspended its operation. (In February, 1959, the Attorney General issued an opinion to the effect that the section was valid.) In 1960 plaintiff brought this proceeding in declaratory relief to determine the validity, effect and interpretation of the section and for injunctive relief against its enforcement. The trial court found that the commission lacked jurisdiction and authority to promulgate said section; that said section is invalid, and that application of section 9(a) would cause plaintiff irreparable injury. As alternative grounds of decision, the court held that federal law, in particular the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq.) has preempted the field of regulation sought to be covered by section 9(a) and that application of that section 'would impose an undue and unlawful burden on interstate commerce and would result in a constitutionally prohibited extraterritorial application of state law.'

Thereupon the court entered judgment holding section 9(a) invalid, and restraining defendants from enforcing the section as against plaintiff.

The action was tried on stipulated facts. The pertinent ones follow:

United Air Lines is engaged in interstate and foreign commerce as a common carrier. United transports persons, property and mail to and from approximately 66 cities in the United States and Canada. Sixteen of these cities are located in California. United is a Delaware corporation with its principal executive offices established in Chicago and its operational headquarters and superintendent of stewardess service located in Denver, Colorado.

United's air routes total 11,613 miles, of which 1,342 or 11.5 per cent are route miles in California. The remainder are interstate and foreign route miles. During the year ended June 30, 1960, the total revenue passenger miles flown by United totalled 5,154,586.000, of which 307,334.029 revenue passenger miles or 5.96 per cent represented California intrastate miles, i. e., those where passengers began and ended their journeys in California.

As of July 15, 1960, United had in its employ approximately 1267 stewardesses, of whom approximately 527 were based in California, in that they were domiciled and paid in this state. Many of the stewardesses based in California are assigned to and work on United's interstate flights, spending but little of their working time within California. Even stewardesses assigned primarily to intrastate flights within California habitually spend a portion of their time on interstate flights. United also employs other stewardesses who are not domiciled or paid in California but who enter the state in the course of interstate flights and spend a portion of their working time in California. The total systemwide scheduled hours for United's stewardesses in the month of August, 1960, was 87,470 stewardess-hours. Of this total there were scheduled 4,235 stewardess-hours, or 4.84 per cent on intrastate flights in California.

As of July 15, 1960, United had stewardesses based at San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D. C., Boston, Newark, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Denver, and Seattle. During the period August 31, 1959, through August 31, 1960, 185 United stewardesses transferred from out-of-state domiciles to California domiciles and 77 transferred from California domiciles to out-of-state domiciles. Such transfers do not include 310 stewardesses who became domiciled in California during said period after completing their training at United's stewardess training center in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

As of July 15, 1960, United had in its employ approximately 368 female ticket agents, of whom approximately 112 were working in offices of United located in California. A major portion of the time of the female ticket agents is spent in arranging and selling tickets for interstate and foreign transportation on United's system, or a combination thereof with connecting service on systems of other carriers. All ticket agents and stewardesses based in California are paid their salaries by checks drawn on California banks and delivered to them.

United requires that its stewardesses and female ticket agents wear uniforms. As to stewardesses, the terms regarding the cost of acquisition and maintenance are covered by a systemwide collective bargaining agreement made and entered into between United and its stewardesses, as required by the federal Railway Labor Act. This collective bargaining agreement specifically provides that the cost of the uniform is to be borne in part by the stewardess, either directly or by deduction from wages, at the option of the individual stewardess, and in part by United. United provides without expense to the stewardess for the cleaning of uniforms and also takes care of inflight damage to uniforms.

There is no collective bargaining agreement in effect with respect to United's female ticket agents. Generally, the arrangement provided by United's regulations for female ticket agents is the same as that accorded the stewardesses by their collective bargaining agreement, the cost of the uniform being borne in part by the female ticket agents, either directly or by deduction from wages, and in part by United.

The salaries paid by United to stewardesses and female ticket agents are substantially in excess of the minimum wages required to be paid by the laws of the State of California and any regulation or order issued pursuant thereto by any state administrative agency, including the Industrial Welfare Commission, and the minimum wage established by the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.) for employees engaged in interstate commerce. The effective rate of pay is not reduced below the applicable minimum wage by reason of payments for uniforms and their maintenance by stewardesses and female ticket agents.

The Industrial Welfare Commission over the years has enacted four orders respecting minimum wages, maximum hours and standard working conditions for women and minors in the transportation industry. The 1957 revision of Order 9-52 of 1952 was part of a general revision of all the then existing orders of the commission.

In 1956 the commission submitted Order 9-52 to several wage boards for reconsideration. One of these was the Transportation Industries Wage Board. Following the public hearings hereinafter described, the commission proceeded to write a new series of orders. The commission did not separately hear or consider reenactment, amendment and adoption of each individual minimum wage order but the proceedings were conducted simultaneously with respect to amendment and adoption of all the existing orders.

The commission in 1952 and 1957 accepted many of the changes in the orders recommended by one or more of the various wage boards. The commission also departed in numerous instances from the recommendations of the wage boards by rejecting specific recommendations. In some instances it made changes in sections of the orders even though the particular wage board either recommended no change in those sections or was silent as to those sections.

The wage boards did not recommend any amendment to section 9(a) in respect to payment for uniforms. No notice referring specifically to the possibility of amending section 9(a) was ever published and no public hearing was ever held at which amendment to section 9(a) as to payment for uniforms was discussed nor was any evidentiary finding ever made in support of the amendment.

Order 9-57 was published as required by law during the month of Septembe, 1957. Following the issuance of the Attorney General's opinion on February 27, 1959, defendant Florence G. Clifton, Chief of the Division of Industrial Welfare, called a meeting on July 2, 1959, of representatives of certai airlines operating in California concerning enforcement of section 9(a) of Order 9-57. The representatives of the airlines, including United, took the position that the section was neither valid nor applicable as against them.

1. STEWARDESSES.

(a) Preemption.

All of the provisions of sections 1, 2 and 4-13 of the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C.A. §§ 151, 152, 154-163) are made applicable to air carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. (45 U.S.C.A. § 181.)

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