Consider this hypothetical: You're a human resources manager. An employee comes up to you and complains about a picture a gay co-worker has on his desk of him hugging his partner. The employee would like to be transferred to an empty cubicle toward the end of the office. What do you do?
This situation was just one that was discussed in 'Sexual Orientation and Religious Beliefs at the Workplace: How HR Must Find the Balance.' The session was one of many featured at the Society for Human Resource Management ( SHRM ) Workplace Diversity Conference that took place Oct. 25-27 at the Chicago Marriott.
Presenter Drew Alexis, general counsel at IndyMac Bank in Pasadena, Calif., talked about several court cases that involved the title subjects. For example, in Buonanno v. AT&T Broadband ( D. Colo. April 1, 2004 ) , Judge Marcia S. Krieger held that AT&T's discharge of Albert Buonanno violated his civil rights. Buonanno refused to sign AT&T's diversity policy which required him to 'respect and value the differences in all of us.'
Buonanno claimed that he could not value homosexuality and any religious beliefs other than Christianity.
Buonanno argued that he could respect and value the individual and he agreed not to discriminate against his fellow employees, but God's word said to him that certain things were sinful and he could not, therefore, value those things. In making her decision, Judge Krieger ruled that AT&T's policy 'went too far' and failed to accommodate Buonanno's religious beliefs. She therefore awarded Buonanno back and front pay and lost 401K matching funds, plus emotional distress and interest totaling almost $150,000.
Alexis showed that the above case presented a common problem that HR managers must face: maintaining a balance between preventing potentially harmful conduct and protecting a worker's religious beliefs.
The key issues, according to Alexis, are the reasonableness of the employee's actions/beliefs and the burdens those ideas place on others. Managers also recounted their own experiences and solicited advice from Alexis and other audience members on how to handle various situations.
Alexis also pointed out the bottom line: it's just work. 'If you want to debate issues, you have friends and family for those things. It's a job,' he said.
SHRM is the world's largest group devoted to human resource management, representing more than 190,000 individuals.