Effective January 28, 2021, the Postal Service™ is revising Handbook EL-312, Employment and Placement, Chapters 2, 5, 6, and 7, to change the wording pertaining to USPS® policy prohibiting sex discrimination in personnel hiring and placement so that the handbook is consistent with a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued June 2020.
In the decision, the Court states that “an employer violates Title VII when it intentionally fires an individual employee based in part on sex” and that “an individual’s homosexuality or transgender status is not relevant to employment decisions. That’s because it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”
Although the Postal Service will not publish the revised Handbook EL-312 until February 2021, the standards are effective immediately.
The Postal Service will incorporate these revisions into the next edition of the online Handbook EL-312, which is available on the PolicyNet website:
n Go to blue.usps.gov.
n In the left-hand column, click Essential Links, and then click PolicyNet.
n Go to the right-hand side under “Published Forms and Directives.”
n Click Handbooks.
The direct URL for the Postal Service PolicyNet website is http://blue.usps.gov/cpim.
— Equal Employment Opportunity
Compliance and Appeals,
Labor Relations, 1-28-21
