What Altitude Express Means For Your HR
By Matthew J. Roberts
Business human resource (HR) issues and developments have become an integral part of running any type of business. HR problems can quickly deplete a company’s resources from having to deal with long, drawn out legal battles to having to pay out significant amounts of money due to misconduct by an employee or manager. Risk management and education when it comes to HR issues should be at the forefront of any executive in any size of company. From time to time there are developments in this area. They are not frequent, but when they do occur, every business owner, manager, executive, and HR representative needs to pay attention since these changes usually change the landscape of how a company can stay compliant with these rules and laws.
This summer, on June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court came down with a decision that adds additional meaning to the language of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This language involves those who identify as gay and those who are members of the transgender community. Many people may recognize that Title VII deals with discrimination on the basis of gender, usually in the form of treating men differently than women. An example is by not hiring or firing a woman who has children but then hiring or keeping a man who has children the same age, where there are no other reasons for the firing except that person’s gender.
This new decision was brought by the case of Altitude Express v Zarda. In this case the U.S. Supreme Court found that if an employer fires a man, who happens to be gay, because he is attracted to other men, but would accept that behavior in a female employee, then that is discrimination on the basis of sex. This is because that man is being penalized because of his sex in the sense that he is not acting like a “man” should act in the way that he is attracted to other men. Similarly, if a man informs his employer that he is going to transition to a woman and that he will be wearing women’s clothes and acting like a woman and is then fired for no other reason than his transgender status, it is discrimination on the basis of sex. As with the first example, the employer would accept that activity and behavior if employee was female from birth, but not male.
With this change, the next thing to ask is what to do with this new information. The first thing would be to update your company’s existing diversity and discrimination procedures to include these or similar examples. The other options would be to hold a separate meeting just addressing this new aspect of Title VII or point out this change to your employees and managers at your company’s regular refresher meeting so that they are well aware of the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of Title VII. Additionally, a company-wide memorandum with this information could be sent to employees for them to inform themselves, but make sure that it is pointed out by management and the executives at a meeting to show how important it is to comply with this.
If your company does not have any procedures to educate your employees regarding these types of issues or your company is in need of establishing updated procedures the attorneys at the Law Offices of Burton A. Brown are well versed in employment law and in advising companies in risk management when it comes to discrimination and other HR issues. For more information or to schedule a consultation visit our website at www.burtonabrown.com or call at (312) 236-5582.
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