The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against A&E Tire over claims of discrimination against a potential applicant for his gender identity.
According to a story by HR Dive’s Lisa Burden appearing on its website, the company has agreed to settle the case for $60,000 and a letter of apology to Egan Woodward, a transgendered applicant. The lawsuit alleges that the company initially offered the job to Woodward but hired someone else for the same position after performing a background check. During the screening process, after seeing that Woodward had checked female on his background screening paperwork, the company decided against hiring Woodward and hired someone else.
The Court found that A&E Tire did discriminate against Woodward and was in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it had “plausibly alleged” A&E Tire had not hired Woodward because he did not conform to sex stereotypes.
In addition to the monetary settlement and letter of apology to Woodward for the discrimination, the company was required to update their employment policy to clearly state that it will not tolerate sex discrimination, including discrimination based on sex stereotyping and transgender status. The company also agreed to train its current management staff and workers to the current law which prohibits discrimination based on gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Some members of Congress have introduced the Equality Act (H.R. 5) that would extend the protections of Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Department of Justice and the Trump Administration are not in agreement with this stance and have sided with employers who believe that LGBT and transgendered applicants are not and should not be protected by Title VII.
In October of this year, the US Supreme Court is due to hear three cases which seek to answer the question as to whether employees who are LGBT are protected und