| The House Education and Labor Committee announced a committee vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) for next Wednesday morning.
The Human Rights Campaign breaks the news:
The Human Rights Campaign can now confirm the House Education and Labor Committee will vote on Wednesday, November 18, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. on legislation to end the widespread practice of employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The vote was noticed moments ago.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017), introduced by Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), would prohibit employment discrimination, preferential treatment, and retaliation on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with 15 or more employees.
Why are businesses with 15 or fewer employees still allowed to legally bias their hiring and termination decisions on someone's real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity? I'm waiting on the Quarterly Census of Emoployment and Wages report from The Montana Department of Labor and Industry to find out what number of Montana's small businesses currently have 15 or fewer employees. Judging from my past experience as a small business organizer, I'd think that a sizable number of businesses fall under this 15 employee quota.
I am still reading more on what this bill means for the LGBT community, and what we can expect. But a serious question I have is can a business fire an employee because they are black or jewish if they have under fifteen employees?
Update: Major federal employment discrimination law, which covers only "race, color, religion, sex or national origin," only protects employees at businesses with more than fifteen employees. State and local protections often serve to protect employees at smaller businesses.
Pending its passage at the federal level, it's still going to be important to work towards adding protections for all LGBT employees in Montana regardless of the number of coworkers they have. While the Equality Project is beginning a campaign to pass local non-discrimination ordinances in several Montana cities, much like what just passed in Salt Lake City, Kalamazoo and Ft. Worth, it seems like a critical component to leave out such a large number of business owners and legitimize discrimination.
Some very good news is that the legislation will protect the transgender community from workplace discrimination, which is legal in 38 states right now, including Montana.
The Senate's counterpart bill has almost fifty sponsors, including both Democrats and Republicans. Neither Sens. Baucus or Tester are listed as co-sponsors yet.
Past communications with Rep. Rehberg show he's opposed to ending workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. I'd like to know where his three Democratic opponents, Dennis McDonald, Tyler Gernant and Melinda Gopher, stand on the issue as this important bill moves forward.
Update: Montana's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) shows that there are 29,831 small businesses with fewer than 15 employees in Montana. While a portion of these businesses might be made of the self-employed, many will stil be allowed to make hiring or firing decisions based on someone's real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. |
