ENDA "Lite" On the Way?

Federal legislative action in employment law matters, actually on most things, is pretty much a non-starter these days.  But that does not mean that there is no potential for continuing developments, witness the firestorm of attention that the NLRB has received of late.

ENDA, the legislation which would extendTitle VII type protection to gays, lesbians and depending on the version of the bill, transgendered individuals, is one piece of legislation that all the pundits had predicted was most likely to pass following Obama's election in 2008. But it too has stalled.

Now a partial step could be imminent, with news that the Administration is considering an Executive Order that would extend such protections to employees of federal contractors, either with a separate Executive Order or amending the venerable Executive Order 11246.

The Advocate gets down into the political nitty-gritty on the chances of such action being taken as it appears that it been cleared at the department level, and the decision is now, or soon will be, on President Obama's desk. See, Gatekeepers of the Employment Executive Order.

According to the article, via an Executive Order 20% of the civilian workforce would be covered by such an action.