are having to similarly shift away from promoting DEI to creating programs that are not enhancing one group over another. But what constitutes such a shift? Making “ mere cosmetic changes ” such as renaming an established DEI department something akin to “Office of Access, Compliance, and Community,” as George Mason University did, is not enough. The university is under fire for allegedly keeping “unlawful policies that promoted hiring and tenure preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” despite the name change. A good number of firms have sponsored employee resource groups, or ERGs, which are forums in which workers, such as women, Black people, Asians, Hispanics, LGBTQ, and others can meet and discuss issues related to employment or other, broader issues of being a part of a specific background. Is having these groups—groups that generally are seen as a benefit for both employers and employees--now a liability? For Starbucks Coffee Company, maybe. The firm is being sued by Missouri for its DEI
on what is now considered illegal discrimination against those people who don’t qualify as non-White or in a so-called protected group. The backlash against affirmative action efforts to help create populations of workers and students that more represent the overall ethnic or gender mix of the U.S. started before the second inauguration of President Trump. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that U.S. universities cannot have a criterion for student acceptance that has any racial factors, erasing part of a 1978 Supreme Court decision that allowed universities to consider race as a factor to achieve legitimate desires to develop diverse student bodies. In the wake of the 2023 decision, to avoid being considered illegal under either the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or the Civil Rights Act of 1964, these institutions shifted focus for acceptance away from race and more on economic needs. The Goal Posts Are Moving to Where? Now, employers in the U.S.
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ISSUE 15 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
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