Need help knowing if accepting this job would be a violation. E

[Jamie West II]

Jurisdiction

North Carolina

I'm a co-owner of a small cleaning company in North Carolina and was contacted by another company who wanted a post construction clean up for a Family Dollar. This consists of just normal janitorial work of sweeping, mopping, cleaning shelves, windows, etc. Just a typical detailed cleaning of a store before it is opened. We currently have two people on our crew, one male and one female. I was just intending to pick up a temporary worker to get the number they wanted on site but then I was informed that the client wanted 3 male workers on the job site. This caused me to turn down the job because I felt that there would be no way to accept it and go about hiring two temporary workers while using their gender as a primary determining factor when there didn't seem to be a valid reason for such a request outside of personal preference. I know for example Hooters can hire only female servers because it's integral to their business model, but no such correlation exists between my companies business model and the gender of my employees. So if anyone can help me answer the following question based off that situation.

Is it legal for me to take a contract from someone who is requiring me to staff as many men as possible on the job site when there doesn't appear to be any reason for the request other than their personal preference? The request felt wrong so I didn't accept the contract but was that just me over thinking the request or was it the correct legal decision?

 

[zddoodah]

You got it right. It wouldn't be illegal to to take the contract, but it would be illegal to make hiring and staffing decisions based on gender.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Is it legal for me to take a contract from someone who is requiring me to staff as many men as possible on the job site when there doesn't appear to be any reason for the request other than their personal preference? The request felt wrong so I didn't accept the contract but was that just me over thinking the request or was it the correct legal decision?

I think you made the right moral choice. However, it appears you may indeed could have legally done it. Federal laws on employment discrimination only apply to employers who regularly employ 15 or more people. A number of states have lowered that cut off, but from what I can see NC is not one of them. In general the southern states tend to have little in the way of laws against employment discrimination by private employers. Check with a local employment law attorney to see if your locality has any restrictions that would apply to you so you know where the line is. But if you are committed to equal employment anyway then it doesn't matter how many employees you need to trip over the legal line. You've already drawn your own line, and I applaud you for having done so.