Baldor Electric Co., which once produced batteries and generators for the Army and other federal agencies, has agreed to pay $2 million and offer 50 people jobs to settle allegations of discrimination, federal contract oversight officials said this week. The company’s applicant screening process for its facility in Fort Smith, Ark. allegedly discriminated against women and minorities, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) said in a news release. The OFCCP found the company’s process of evaluating applicants was based on subjective standards, not an objective analysis of a person’s qualifications, an OFCCP spokesman said. As a result, 795 qualified…
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An executive order that would extend discrimination protections to gay federal workers is not forthcoming, a senior administration official said Thursday. Instead, the Obama administration is hoping that a bill mulling in Congress for the last 18 years will eventually bring about the workplace protections that gay rights advocates and lawmakers have been seeking. Lawmakers have proposed but never passed legislation to extend workforce discrimination protections to cover sexual orientation during almost every session of Congress since 1994. Language to cover gender identity discrimination was added to the proposed bill, called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, in 2007. But the bill itself…
More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition asking the president to issue an executive order ensuring workplace protections for gay federal contractors. Administration officials will not confirm any action, but Tico Almeida, president of the Freedom to Work advocacy group, said Labor and Justice department lawyers have recommended President Obama issue a policy requiring federal contractors to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. Freedom to Work, which seeks anti-discrimination policies for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender workers, created the online petition at Change.org. More than 16 million employees of federal contractors either work for companies or reside in states that do not…