A lawsuit filed by the advocacy group Freedom to Work alleges that ExxonMobil discriminated against a prospective employee because the individual was gay.<\/p>\n
After the oil and gas giant failed to adopt a nondiscrimination policy that included protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, Freedom to Work ran a \u201cpaired resume\u201d experiment to see if the company actively discriminated in its hiring practices. The LGBT worker advocacy group submitted two fictitious resumes in response to a listing for an administrative position at Exxon\u2019s Illinois offices. One of the candidates, the complaint alleges, was a highly qualified LGBT individual; the other was less qualified but had no ties to the gay community.<\/p>\n
Exxon never responded to the employment request from the LGBT candidate while it actively pursued the other candidate, a practice in violation of Illinois\u2019 Human Rights Act, the suit alleges:<\/p>\n
In particular, when a highly qualified LGBT candidate applied to work as an administrative assistant for Exxon in Illinois, Exxon refused to invite the applicant for an interview and never contacted her about her interest in the position.<\/p>\n
In stark contrast, during the same time period a less qualified non-LGBT applicant applied for the same position and Exxon responded by contacting the less qualified non-LGBT applicant on three separate occasions to ask her to interview for the position.<\/p>\n
On the third occasion that Exxon contacted the non-LGBT applicant, Exxon\u2019s representative even suggested that the position would be held open for the non-LGBT applicant for four days until the applicant could contact Exxon. And even after the non-LGBT candidate failed to respond to Exxon\u2019s request for an interview, Exxon did not contact the better qualified LGBT candidate for an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cExxon has repeatedly claimed they do not discriminate,\u201d Freedom to Work\u2019s president Tico Almeida said in a statement. \u201cWe are bringing forward proof they\u2019ve broken the law, and we\u2019re hopeful this compelling case will move them over the tipping point.\u201d<\/p>\n