Did you know that claims of sexual bias by men are on the rise?
We usually hear about women being treated unfairly around pay issues, promotional opportunities and other such concerns. Here’s a perfect example involving Razzoo’s, a Cajun restaurant chain based in Dallas, Texas. In late 2008, a group of male applicants, servers and bartenders filed a lawsuit claiming they were discriminated against when management set up a policy of having an 80-20 ratio of women to men behind the bar. Men found it difficult to get hired or promoted from lower level positions to the more coveted server and bartender jobs. As a result of the investigation into these charges of sexual bias, Razzoo’s agreed to pay $775,000 to claimaints. The settlement decree also required Razzoo’s to spend no less than $225,000 to either retain the services of a human resources consultant or to hire an entire in-house human resources department.
Here are 3 things business owners must do to prevent such sexual bias situations and associated penalties:
1.Ensure that all of your hiring, training, promoting and evaluating processes are fair and equal with regard to gender, race, color, marital status, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual identity and sexual orientation.
2.Reinforce this culture in all of your communications, including policy and procedure manuals, employee handbooks, memos, training sessions, meetings, etc.
3.Review and update job descriptions, job ads, and job classifications annually to ensure they continue to be accurate and legally compliant. Look for wording that may be interpreted as sexually biased and remove it.
Avoid costly fines and mandated procedures. If you don’t know the rules prohibiting sexual bias, hire someone who does.
