Employers 'should help' with staff sex changes

BEN FAWKES - The Dominion Post | Saturday, 27 September 2008

Employers with transgender staff should assist them as they change sex, proposed Labour Department guidelines say.

Such assistance would include helping them to decide which toilets to use and ensuring the person's new name was used.

The draft plan says employers should meet an employee intending to change sex and establish a "written action plan" to ensure their workplace transition was smooth.

Employees needed to feel welcome and should be encouraged to use facilities applicable to their new identity.

"While a unisex toilet is a positive way to ensure facilities are inclusive, you should not be excluded from using the appropriate single-sex toilet."

The fact sheet also says employers should not refer to a transgender's previous name when supplying a reference.

"A trans person's gender identity is something that is private and intensely personal ... is not a lifestyle choice, it is simply a part of who they are."

Agender New Zealand president Joanne Clarke, whose organisation supports transgender people and their families, said there were probably about 4000 transgender people in New Zealand.

"People get hung up on the whole gender thing. People don't think with their genitals. If you have it removed it does not make you thick," Ms Clarke said.

The case of Sarah Lurajud, a Christchurch police officer who made the transition three years ago, was an example of how attitudes with organisations could quickly change, Ms Clarke said.

"The police were incredibly supportive. In the past they would have made it impossible ... It really changed the culture of the police. They used to be very blokey."

Wellington property manager Claudia McKay said society was more accepting of transgenders than when she made the switch 12 years ago, but prejudice still existed.

Though she had not encountered any real difficulties at work, many were subject to workplace harassment and bullying.

"There are all sorts of problems, up to and including physical threats. It comes down to the management dealing with things properly."

Having guidelines and standards would benefit employers and their staff, she said.

"There would be a tiny per cent [of employers] who have come across [transgender employees] before ... and don't know how to deal with it."

The department said the guidelines were intended to set clear standards for managers and business owners so as to prevent conflict and discrimination. "The idea is pre-emptive to ensure there are not any messy situations," a spokesman said.

Public comment on the guidelines closes on Tuesday. To date the department had received only two submissions, both of them in favour

SUPPORTING GUIDELINES: Claudia McKay says transgenders still face problems