Welcome to Diversity Briefings: 11/22/2010
Volume 1, Issue 20. Published Each Monday - Friday
Welcome back to Diversity Briefings.
I hope you are enjoying each issue of this newsletter. Please feel free to resend this Diversity newsletter on to friends and colleagues. If you would like to subscribe to receive daily updates, the form for Diversity Briefings is below. Also, if you have some extra time, take a look at the new diversity glossary, upper left on this blog site. Take Care and Good Reading! Susan Klopfer, editor and publisher
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GINA: It's More Than Just a Pretty Name
From Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP: The employment-related provisions (Title II) of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act of 2008 took effect November 21, 2009. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces the GINA, issued proposed regulations in March 2009, the final regulations were issued only last week. They will take effect January 10, 2011.The GINA appears eminently reasonable on its face, but it is riddled with traps and technicalities that could create problems for inattentive employers. In general, “GINA prohibits use of genetic information in employment decision making, restricts acquisition of genetic information, requires that genetic information be maintained as a confidential medical record, and places strict limits on disclosure of genetic information.” Although this sounds unremarkable, an individual’s family history is considered “genetic information.” Thus, an essential part of most medical examinations is generally off-limits.
http://www.constangy.com/communications-308.html
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EEOC poised to help older workers fight hiring bias
From Marcia Meercer, InsideNova.com: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seems poised to fight age bias in hiring. That’s good news for workers older than 55, who have more trouble recovering from job losses than younger folks. Unemployment for people 55 and older soared from 3 percent in November 2007 to 7.3 percent in August. While 7.3 percent may not sound bad when the national unemployment rate is stuck near 10 percent, the past 22 months have been the longest spell of high unemployment older workers as a group have experienced in 60 years.
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2010/nov/21/mercer-eeoc-poised-help-older-workers-fight-hiring-ar-666516/
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Lilly Ledbetter's fight for equal pay goes on
Reports Roy L Williams, The Birmingham News: For Lilly Ledbetter, last week was a sign that her battle for equal pay is not over. On Wednesday, the Alabama native and namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was in Washington as the U.S. Senate debated the Paycheck Fairness Act. The Paycheck Fairness Act, which had already passed the U.S. House, would ensure that women aren't retaliated against for seeking information about what their male co-workers earn to ensure they are being paid properly.
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2010/nov/21/mercer-eeoc-poised-help-older-workers-fight-hiring-ar-666516/
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Workers with hygiene issues need to be told
Reports Joyce E.A. Russell, The Washington Post: Obviously, personal hygiene is important at work. Most people wouldn't go to a job interview without combing their hair or wearing clean clothes because they know that hiring decisions are heavily influenced by first impressions. Being clean and neat makes people feel more confident, especially in social situations, and those who aren't properly groomed run the risk of being ridiculed or ostracized… You do have to be sensitive to the fact that people from different backgrounds and cultures might have different norms for bathing, dress and hygiene. It is okay, though, to share the organization's norms, especially if working relationships with colleagues and clients are being affected.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111906390.html
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Civil Rights Fast Continues in New York
Out In Jersey reports: On November 2, the LGBT Civil Rights Fast team of Alan Bounville and Iana Di Bona began a fast. They made a simple demand that in accordance with the successful passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (CRA), assuring full equality for all Americans, that it now include LGBTQ people by adding, “sexual orientation and gender identity. We have been sitting/standing/sleeping outside our senator’s office with one simple demand: please file the bill in Washington that adds “sexual orientation and gender identity" to the Civil Rights Act” says Alan Bounville.
http://www.outinjersey.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=998:civil-rights-fast-continues-in-new-york&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50
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Is Internet Access the Next Civil Rights Battle?
Urban Inside reports: Many of the country’s leading civil rights organizations are siding with the phone and cable companies in their bid to prevent federal regulations over their broadband, or high-speed, Internet services. At stake: whether to preserve “network neutrality” — the longstanding principle that all consumers can access whatever websites or applications they want on the Internet, at the same speed and without limitations imposed by Internet service providers. Clouding the issue, however, is that more than half a dozen of these groups are fighting accusations of being bought off by the telecom industry. Records of telecom contributions to minority interests reveal a minimum of nearly $2 billion in cash and in-kind support made in the past decade by the top three providers — AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast.
http://www.urbaninsite.com/?p=12597
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Urban League supporters ponder the future of civil rights groups
Reports Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer: The Urban League of Greater Cleveland, which recently faced its own mortality, inspired a discussion Friday about the future of civil rights organizations and whether they can and should survive. A consensus quickly emerged that the need to address inequality remains great but that new strategies are required to pay for it.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/11/urban_league_supporters_ponder.html
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Workplace diversity is key to success: Nasscom to IT Inc
From Bangladore, India DH News Service reports : Nasscom, on Monday, said diversity and inclusion have become key business strategies for IT companies, who no longer view gender inclusion as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Addressing the Nasscom summit, Senior Director Sucharita Eashwar said member companies today show a great deal of maturity in the way they define policies on diversity and equality at work place. Despite encouraging 40 per cent out of an estimated 400 million IT work force in the country being women, industry leaders agree that the net has to be cast wider across disability, language, geography, age and other barriers if the 10 million deficit in manpower were to be plugged.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/114988/workplace-diversity-key-success-nasscom.html
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Demographic shift will affect how news is covered and consumed
Diversity Inc. reports: According to an August 2008 report by the U.S. Census Bureau, groups currently categorized as racial/ethnic "minorities"—Blacks and Latinos, East Asians and South Asians—will account for a majority of the U.S. population by the year 2042. In 2008, nearly half (47 percent) of the nation's children under 5 years of age were listed as a minority, with 25 percent being Latino. By the fall of 2018—just nine years away—public high schools across the nation will have a majority of traditionally underrepresented students, says the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a research group headquartered in Boulder, Colo. Some states already have a majority population that is not white: California, 70 percent; Texas, more than 60 percent; Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, 53 percent in each. Other states stand on the brink of the majority-minority change: Illinois, New York and North Carolina. This large demographic shift will affect everything, including how news is covered and consumed.
http://www.diversityinc.com/department/103/Diversity-News/
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Why are more Latinos heading for college?
Gail Zoppo of Diversity Inc. reports: Instead of trying to compete for jobs during the economic downturn, a record 2.6 million full-time freshmen enrolled in 6,100 institutions during the start of the recession (2007–2008), reports the Pew Research Center, with the percentage of Latino enrollment outpacing all other racial/ethnic groups. According to the just-released "Minorities and the Recession-Era College Enrollment Boom," the 6 percent enrollment spike was the largest increase in 40 years. And the majority of growth came from Latino and Black student enrollment: Between 2007 and 2008, Latino freshmen enrollment grew 15 percent and Black enrollment jumped 8 percent, compared with an increase of only 3 percent among white freshmen. What else did the study find?
http://diversityinc.com/article/7789/Why-Are-More-Latinos-Going-to-College/
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Companies Must Manage the ‘ISMs’ When Working With Diversity
Susan Klopfer writes
-- “We have some great new and positive ideas for restructuring our sales workforce, ultimately helping our entire company to get through this recession. But there is so much resistance to diversity that I can’t implement all of our plans and I am coming to you for some help. How do I encourage our sales division to make these changes?”
--Sales Vice President, Rema, describes her dilemma to members of her company’s special change management team during their weekly meeting at WXYZ Company.
--“Diversity is always a tough area of change,” says Pete, a team member who initiated its organization five years earlier. Pete had taken diversity management classes in college, becoming a devout follower of diversity gurus R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. and William Sonnenschein. He persuaded his company’s CEO to organize this group that advises other managers as they implement change throughout the organization. “We call this time of most resistance during any change project as being in the Delta,” he explains to Rema.
--“We know you’ve worked hard to get everyone behind the sales restructuring project, and it was especially critical that you considered the diversity component in these changes,” another group member, Marilyn, joins in.
--“But I am not surprised that you are encountering serious resistance from line managers, employees, and even senior managers. Resistance typically rises from many sources.”
Continued --
http://diversitythoughts.blogspot.com/p/companies-must-manage-isms-when-working.html
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Keywords: cultural diversity, manage and value diversity, diversity training, diversity education, workplace violence, workplace, employment, diversity, disability, inclusion, ethnic, racial, gender, multiculturalism, immigration, lgbt, racism, discrimination, new civil rights movement, civil rights, feminist, latinos, Native Americans, hostile workplace, harassment
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