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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2002)
24 apnl 5 . 2QQ2 Working Out Just Out evaluates the area’s 10 largest private employers by Timothy Krause • Photos by Marty Davis regons unemployment rate still hov- ers above 8 percent, and many today worry about keeping their jobs. But for sexual minority workers, the states present economic condition has not eclipsed the struggle for on-the-job equality. asked questions adapted from the Corporate Equality Index m aintained by the Human Rights Campaign. The answers to these seven questions constitute a baseline to evaluate how companies treat sexual minority employees (see chart). D on’t lie with my enemies. None in this group say they do anything to undennine the dignity or worth of sexual minority workers, such as supporting anti-gay organizations. To appraise the current employment arena for sexual minorities in Portland, Just O ut sur veyed workplace policies among some of the city’s largest employers. Results illustrate that although progress is evident, parity often remains elusive. Companies for this poll were chosen based on a list of the area’s 10 largest private-sector employers published by the Portland Metropoli tan Cham ber of Commerce. Employers were How do they stack up? K atar Foundation Hoottti Pia* of tho Northwest Oregon Health Sciencat University total C«T» U.S. lank Safeway Inc. Nationally, however, H R C ’s database lists at least one business that doesn’t meet this defini tion. CBRL Group, based in Lebanon, Tenn., and better known for operating Cracker Barrel restaurants, flunks the index altogether. Rate my job— not sexual— performance. W hen it comes to a written nondiscrimination policy that includes the words “sexual orienta tion,” employers again score high, thanks in part to civil rights assurances offered through city and county ordinances as well as a statewide court decision. Portland and M ultnomah County, for exam ple, specify “sexual orientation" in civil rights policies, saying such discrimination poses a threat to citizens’ health, safety and general wel fare and “menaces the institutions and founda tion of our community.” Furthermore, based on the 1998 Oregon Court of Appeals decision in Tanner vs. Oregon Health Sciences University, the Bureau of Labor and Industries accepts com Legacy Health System Meier ft Frank Providence Health System Fred Meyer Stores United Parcel S a n ta D o e s n o t a c tiv e ly e n g a g e in a c tio n s th a t w o u ld u n d e rm in e th e d ig n ity an d w o rth o f s e x u a l m in o rity e m p lo y e e s . “ H a s a d o p te d a w ritte n n o n d is c rim in a tio n p o lic y th a t in c lu d e s th e w o r d s se x u a l o rie n ta tio n ." ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ O ffe r s d iv e rs ity tra in in g th a t in c lu d e s d is c u s s io n o f s e x u a l o rie n ta tio n a n d /o r g e n d e r e x p re s s io n in th e w o rk p la c e . A d v e r tis e s , s p o n s o rs e v e n ts o r m a k e s c h a rita b le g ifts to th e s e x u a l m in o ritie s c o m m u n ity . » O ffe r s d o m e s tic p a r tn e r h e a lth in s u ra n c e b e n e fits . S u p p o r ts a s e x u a l m in o rity e m p lo y e e g ro u p . H a s a d o p te d a w ritte n n o n d is c rim in a tio n p o lic y th a t in c lu d e s th e w o r d s “g e n d e r id e n tity " o r " g e n d e r e x p re s s io n ." 0» ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ plaints of sexual orientation discrimination from employees throughout the state. Take a diversified approach. W hen the focus shifts to on-thc-joh dialogue about queer issues, U nited Parcel Service stops delivery. T he prognosis for Legacy, however, Lx>ks good. Spokeswoman Q uita Lupfer reports that the nonprofit health care system recently initi ated a- new cultural diversity training program for managers in which the presenter addresses all groups, including sexual minorities. Safeway, too, maintains a diversity board, and spokeswoman Bridget Flanagan says the Portland division plans to set up a Web site where all employees can provide input. Be a good neighbor. N either UPS nor Fred Meyer reaches out to the sexual minorities community through advertising, sponsorships or contributions. But of the rest, some donate to causes, such as the Oregonians Against Dis crim ination Luncheon (see sidebar), while o th ers, including Safeway, supply events with goods-in-kind. “Support from the May Foundation and our departm ent store divisions to AIDS-related causes across the country totals more than $2 million since our AIDS fund began in 1990," Meier &. Frank spokeswoman Cheryl Hansen says. “Support specifically for gay/leshian/hisexu- al/transgender causes in the past several years totals nearly $50,000 nationwide.” Provide for domestic tranquillity. Accord ing to H RC’s State of the Workplace 2001, domes tic partner benefits nationwide have increased 50 percent since 1999. Intel, Kaiser, O H SU and U.S. Bank all offer health insurance coverage for employees’ same-sex domestic partners, and some have for several years. Many consider this an issue of equitable pay, and studies show costs to he negligible. But in hard times, employers might decline to add or continue benefits they view as only perks, including pension benefits. “There are a lot of benefits that employees are looking for companies to provide,” UPS spokeswoman Peggy G ardner says. “In the past year, the benefit we chose to add was a work/life balance kind of benefit. Same-sex benefits arc part of our ongoing conversation, hut as of yet, they are not formally offered through our health care program.” O H SU found that providing access to this coverage was a difficult pill to swallow— the public nonprofit corporation was forced by a lawsuit th at now covers public employees statewide. According to Basic Rights Oregon, Tanner vs. O H SU confirms that because of the Oregon C onstitution’s commitment to equal protections, public employers must offer domes tic partners of gay men and lesbians access to health care and other benefits if they offer them to spouses. Recognize our strength in numbers. Three companies— Kaiser, Intel and O H SU — benefit from input of sexual minority constituency groups (see sidebars). Although not exactly as defined here, Just O ut also recognizes efforts by
