Effective February 25, 2021, the Postal Service™ is revising the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM), Chapters 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8, to update USPS® policy prohibiting sex discrimination in personnel hiring and placement, so that the ELM 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 these revisions in the ELM until September 2021, the standards are effective immediately.
The Postal Service will incorporate these revisions into the September 2021 edition of the online ELM, 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 Manuals.
The direct URL for the Postal Service PolicyNet website is blue.usps.gov/cpim.
— Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance
and Appeals, Labor Relations, 2-25-21
