The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) — an independent federal agency charged with protecting federal employees from unfair treatment — released a “Gender Transition Policy” on Tuesday, outlining its efforts to solve issues affecting their transgender and gender non-confirming employees in the workplace.
The 13-page directive outlines the OSC’s new internal policies toward employees who are transitioning from one sex to another, including what they can expect from management and what management expects from staff in these situations. Some of the most common problems listed are familiar: information privacy, confidentiality, name and pronoun usage, and unrestricted access to the bathrooms one prefers.
Under the policy, employees who are thinking of transitioning from one gender to another (male-to-female or female-to-male) are encouraged to inform OSC, which will provide them with a designated Gender Transition Coordinator (GTC) to develop a what they call a Workplace Transition Plan tailored to their needs.
According to the agency, a Gender Transition Coordinator “will be a current employee in Human Resources who is designated to do this function and will have appropriate training and expertise.” The GTC is then in charge of ensuring that all records pertaining to the trans individual are amended to reflect that person’s new gender identity.
OSC further states that, if it’s deemed necessary, the agency will dedicate a portion of its budget to training staff to “treat transitioning employees in a respectful manner.” That includes “cultural competency education” and training on what constitutes “harassment” under federal law.
“Similar to the training we provide to other agencies, OSC also regularly provides training to our own staff on many issues, including Equal Employment Opportunity and non-discrimination related topics. As a result, it is not a significant cost for us,” said Nick Schwellenbach, OSC’s Director of Communications.
The policy details the potential for legal ramifications if employees intentionally violate its harassment provisions through derogatory remarks, demeaning behavior, or the intentional use of improper gender pronouns or a name, verbally or in writing, after a transitioning employee has communicated his or her preference to management and employees.
“All OSC employees are expected to comply with all agency policies and federal non-discrimination laws as a condition of their employment,” said Schwellenbach.
When pressed to qualify what the directive meant by “intentional misuse of pronouns” he said: “Every case is different and we assess each situation individually.”
NASA released similar guidelines in April 2014.
