Ball, Level 3, WhiteWave lauded for LGBT policies

Three companies with major presences in Broomfield received top ratings in an annual national report assessing how inclusive major companies and law firms are toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Broomfield-based Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) and Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE: LVLT), as well as Denver-based WhiteWave Foods Co. (NYSE: WWAV), which bases its Americas Food and Beverage Segment in Broomfield, scored perfect 100 percent ratings in the 2016 Corporate Equality Index, compiled by the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization.

Ten Colorado-based companies were among the 851 from across the nation that responded to the HRC survey. A record 407 businesses – spanning nearly every industry and geography – earned a top score of 100 percent and the distinction of “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.” The perfect scores were achieved despite new criteria requiring that companies with global operations extend nondiscrimination protections for their LGBT workers worldwide.

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The report also unofficially rated 176 Fortune 500 companies, which have yet to respond to the CEI survey about their LGBT policies and practices.

Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG), which has locations throughout the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, scored 70 percent, and Holland & Hart LLP, a Denver-based law firm with an office in Boulder, scored 55 percent.

The CEI rates companies and top law firms on detailed criteria falling under five broad categories: nondiscrimination policies, employment benefits, demonstrated organizational competency and accountability around LGBT diversity and inclusion, public commitment to LGBT equality and responsible citizenship.

“Corporate America has long been a leader on LGBT equality, from advocating for marriage equality to expanding essential benefits to transgender employees,” said HRC president Chad Griffin in a prepared statement. “But this year, many leading U.S. companies have broken new ground by expanding explicit nondiscrimination protections to their LGBT workers around the globe. They’ve shown the world that LGBT equality isn’t an issue that stops at our own borders, but extends internationally.”

Work remains to be done despite the progress, Griffin said.

“While support for LGBT workers is growing in the U.S. and around the world, too many companies still fail to guarantee basic, vital workplace protections that allow employees to bring their full selves to work,” he said. “That continues to create barriers for LGBT people, especially for transgender people, who face high rates of unemployment and discrimination in hiring. These companies should look to the example set by global corporate leaders as a path forward to achieving LGBT equality for all workers, no matter where they live.”

The survey found that 511 companies that participated in the survey now offer transgender workers at least one health-care plan that has transgender-inclusive coverage. That’s a 150 percent increase since 2012, when the CEI first included trans-inclusive health care as a requisite for companies to receive a perfect score. Gender identity is now part of nondiscrimination policies at 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies, up from just 3 percent in 2002, and more than 330 major employers have adopted supportive inclusion guidelines for transgender workers who are transitioning.

The full report, including a searchable employer database is available online.