A proposed bill in Congress, called ENDA, is up for
discussion again this year. This isn’t
the first time it has come up, but it does have more momentum now than in
previous years. At this writing, it
looks like the Senate may actually pass it.
The House of Representatives, however, may not even bring it up to a
vote. As an HR professional who has been
in the business for over 30 years, I think this bill is not only “the right
thing to do,” but its passage is a necessity.
Forgetting about warm fuzzies for a few moments, I am presenting three
business reasons why human resources professionals should support this bill.
ENDA
is The Employment Non-Discrimination
Act. If ratified, the law would
prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity by civilian and nonreligious employers with at
least 15 employees. The reaction of some
of the politicians regarding this bill reminds me of the scene in the mayor’s
office in Ghosthunters: We are “headed for a disaster of biblical
proportions…Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!... Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes, The dead rising from
the grave, Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria!” Let’s calm down a minute. I hate
to do this, but I think I will try to confuse everyone with facts instead of “mass
hysteria.”
Reason One:
In actuality, the passage of ENDA may let another secret “out of the
closet” - - harassment of a person because of their perceived sexual
orientation or gender identity is already against the law. Even if you’re not a lawyer, you can easily
Google lawsuits such as Price Waterhouse
v. Hopkins (1989), Oncale v.
Sundowner Offshore Services (1988), and the recent September 2013 ruling in
EEOC v. Boh Brothers Construction Company. In each of these cases, a person alleged that
he or she received harassment and/or discrimination because the employee did
not fit the stereotype of how his or her gender was supposed to act. In Oncale
and Boh Brothers, male employees were
faced with a hostile work environment because other employees thought they
acted too effeminate. In the Price Waterhouse case, a female was told
she didn’t act feminine enough and was subsequently not given a promotion. All sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, claiming that they were being discriminated against because of
their gender. You see, folks, this has
been on the books for ALMOST 50 YEARS and the courts are now interpreting Title
VII’s protection of gender as including protection from discrimination if the
person’s gender doesn’t fit someone else’s stereotype of how that gender should
act. With the passage of ENDA, employers
can officially say that this activity is against the law instead of having to
go around their elbows by giving the detailed Title VII “gender stereotype” examples
as I had to do above. In other words,
unlike those politicians who are saying that this passage will cause MORE
lawsuits, in theory, the passage could cause LESS as more companies will
understand in clearer terms that this activity IS against the law.
Another
reason HR should support ENDA comes from Aretha Franklin: “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” I live in the South where we pride
ourselves that we don’t need unions or third-party intermediaries between our
managers and our employees. A great deal
of this non-union environment is because we encourage respect for our
employees. How can we promote and encourage
respect on the one hand and on the other hand allow disrespect for persons
because of their sexual orientation? An
organization is either respectful of employees and applicants or not. News of bad actions travel a lot faster and last a
lot longer than good ones. Employees and
the public will hear if you are not respectful.
Period. What
impression do you want YOUR company to have with the public?
The
final reason of my short list in support of ENDA is that it just makes good
recruiting sense. Even though we have
recently experienced high unemployment rates, the rates will go down. People will begin moving around to attractive
employers whose “brand” is that of an organization with a welcoming
environment. HR managers and hiring
managers will want to hire the most qualified people who they can afford. In today’s competitive environment, employers
who disregard candidates because of reasons other than knowledge, skills,
abilities, (KSAs), performance, and attendance are shooting themselves in the
foot. We in HR should promote and encourage our
hiring managers and supervisors to forget about all other things except for
whether or not the person is qualified for and can perform the job. Otherwise, we are discounting a lot of
potentially good employees. In my
supervisory training, I tell supervisors that in reality it doesn’t matter what
all the laws are and who is protected under Title VII, the Age Discrimination
in Employment Act, or the laws relating to military services, disability,
genetic information, and so forth. They
shouldn’t worry so much about whether or not Congress tomorrow decides that anyone
who wear green dresses are covered. If
we are being good supervisors, then we are staying with our plan to hire and
promote those who are most qualified for the job.
It
has been estimated that ENDA will help protect the rights of over 7 million
private sector employees. Somehow many
politicians think of the LGBT community as “them.” “They” are “us.” They are parents, children, friends, aunts, and
uncles. They are knowledgeable employees
who help make our companies successes. It makes good business sense to protect and
respect them in all of our organizations.
