Employment
San Diego Municipal Code § 52.9504
in effect§52.9504 Employment
(a) Unlawful employment practices. It shall be an unlawful employment practice for any employer, employment agency or labor organization or any agent or employee thereof to do or attempt to do any of the following:
(1) Fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any person or otherwise to discriminate against any person with respect to compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment, including promotion, on the basis (in whole or in part) that such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
(2) Limit, segregate or classify employees or applicants for employment in any manner which would deprive or tend to deprive any person of employment opportunities or adversely affect his or her employment status on the basis (in whole or in part) that such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
(3) Fail or refuse to refer for employment any person or otherwise to discriminate against any person on the basis (in whole or in part) that such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
(4) Fail or refuse to include in its membership or to otherwise discriminate against any person or to limit, segregate or classify its membership or otherwise adversely affect her or his status as an employee or as an applicant for employment on the basis (in whole or in part) that such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
(5) Discriminate against any person in admission to, or employment in, any program established to provide apprenticeship or other training or retraining, including any on–the–job training program on the basis (in whole or in part) that such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
(6) Make, print, publish or cause to be made, printed or published any notice, statement, sign, advertisement, application or contract with regard to employment that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination with respect to the fact that a person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
(b) Bona fide occupational qualification not prohibited; Burden of proof.
(1) Bona fide occupational qualification. Nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to prohibit selection, rejection or dismissal based upon a bona fide occupational qualification.
(2) Burden of proof. In any action brought under this article, if a party asserts that an otherwise unlawful discriminatory practice is justified as a bona fide occupational qualification, that party shall have the burden of proving:
(A) That the discrimination is in fact a necessary result of a bona fide occupational qualification;
(B) That there exists no less discriminatory means of satisfying the occupational qualification.
(c) Exceptions.
It shall not be an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer to observe the conditions of a bona fide employee benefit system, provided such systems or plans are not a subterfuge to evade the purposes of this article; provided further that no such system shall provide an excuse for failure to hire any person.
(“Employment” added 2–22–1988 by O–17031 N.S.)
Source: City of San Diego Office of the City Clerk, San Diego Municipal Code and City Charter (docs.sandiego.gov PDFs)URL: https://docs.sandiego.gov/municode/MuniCodeChapter05/Ch05Art02Division95.pdf#page=4Fetched: 10/28/2026