In the wake of the news that President Barack Obama will sign an executive order banning anti-LGBT discrimination by federal contractors and their employees, HRC slammed ExxonMobil(NYSE: XOM) and accused the giant federal contractor of lying.
ExxonMobil is a Texas-based oil and gas monolith with revenue last year of over $420 billion. It employs 75,000 people (not all in the U.S.) and it is one of the largest federal contractors. ExxonMobil shareholders 17 times in a row have voted against adding LGBT protections to its Equal Employment Opportunity policy. In fact, after the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil, ExxonMobil removed those protections, along with Mobil’s domestic partner benefits.
The Human Rights Campaign now says that after the “announcement that President Obama will soon issue an executive order extending essential workplace protections to the employees of federal contractors, all eyes turned to the Exxon Mobil Corporation,†adding that ExxonMobil has “decided to lie about their own record.â€
In a brazen statement obtained by the Human Rights Campaign, ExxonMobil is now claiming it has “a longstanding policy that strictly prohibits any form of discrimination by or toward employees, contractors, suppliers and customers in any ExxonMobil workplace. Our global, zero-tolerance policy applies to all forms of discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.â€
To explain why this is baloney, HRC Vice President for Communications Fred Sainz issued the following statement:
“Put bluntly, this statement is a lie,†Sainz said. “ExxonMobil’s Equal Employment and Opportunity Policy has clearly and consistently omitted enumerated LGBT non-discrimination protections for its personnel. Though their statement sounds like it’s taking a very progressive stand, it is in fact a master class in doublespeak—crafted, no doubt, by a team of well-paid lawyers. Until a nondiscrimination policy is enumerated, it isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.â€