The Army barred Tamara, a male who was transitioning into a female, from using the women's restroom. Instead, it required her to use a single-user executive bathroom, which lacked shower facilities.
When the single-user restroom was occupied, Tamara would often use the common women's bathroom. But supervisors told her to stop doing so because it made the other employees uncomfortable. Also, her supervisor continued to refer to Tamara by using male pronouns and calling her "sir,” despite the fact that she had legally changed her name.
Tamara had agreed to a "restroom agreement plan” whereby she would not use the women's restroom until after her surgery. She did this, she said, because she wanted to give her co-workers time to accept the change.
However, Tamara eventually decided not to have the surgery, and she began using the women's bathroom full time. Her supervisor again scolded her. She responded by reminding the boss that she was "legally female.” But, her supervisor never stopped.
Tamara brought an EEOC claim against her employer, citing sex discrimination and harassment. The Army argued that there was nothing in the law that requires employers to permit transgender workers to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
As the HR Manager, how do you handle this issue to avoid further escalation to court? Does this warrant diversity related training? If so, give examples of how you will conduct the training.
The given case talks about a gender discrimination scenario which is becoming a major topic of interest to the organizations and society. As the awareness and guidance given by leaders change and evolve people have become more aware of each gender`s specific needs and is accommodative of that in most of the organizations. In the given case, Tamara gave a complaint against her employer citing discrimination and harassment.
In this case, as an HR I would sit down with both of them separately and identify areas where both can work upon. Without detailed analysis itself, we can see that her supervisors were not respectable towards her transition into a female and kept all referring her to as a male. This would not be good situation if this goes to the court on her supervisors since she had clearly informed of her decisions and others were not respecting those decisions.
On the other hand, Tamara had agreed on restroom agreement plan where she agreed on using women`s restroom only after the surgery. Whatever the reasons maybe, she still did not undergo the surgery and without that she should not have used the female restroom. There are issues from both sides in this case and such instances only keep dragging on without getting a proper solution in place. As an HR manager I would advise them to undergo gender awareness and diversity training so that they can understand the impact their words and actions are having on others. Also this clearly shows that in spite of society progressing and accepting people of all kinds, there are still few sections in the community who have not progressed as per time and intentionally cause emotional disturbances. Such incidents can be overcome easily by proving them adequate diversity training and keeping a close watch on their behaviors and actions. In the training I would use an external advisor to show the changes in the society and the manner in which the society has progressed over the years. I will also ensure that both the parties involved in this case are part of the session and keep the session an intensive and interactive one so that people can discuss and solve the issues together. I would also recommend adding counselors to the training group so that they too understand the manner in which incidents can be handled in the future.
The Army barred Tamara, a male who was transitioning into a female, from using the women's...