WIRTW #625: the “war on women” edition

By Jon Hyman on May 13, 2022

How do you support your female employees amid times of great uncertainty about the continued viability of their reproductive rights and body autonomy?

On the heels on Justice Alito’s leaked majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Levi Strauss & Co. published on its website the following statement.

As the pandemic has shown so clearly, public health issues are workplace issues. Business leaders are responsible for protecting the health and well-being of our employees, and that includes protecting reproductive rights and abortion access.…

Under our current benefits plan, Levi Strauss & Co. employees are eligible for reimbursement for healthcare-related travel expenses for services not available in their home state, including those related to reproductive health care and abortion. There is also a process in place through which employees who are not in our benefits plan, including part-time hourly workers, can seek reimbursement for travel costs incurred under the same circumstances.

Given what is at stake, business leaders need to make their voices heard and act to protect the health and well-being of our employees. That means protecting reproductive rights.

Levi Strauss joins other notable employers such as Amazon, Citigroup, Salesforce, and Yelp in covering employees’ abortion-related travel expenses. I say bravo!

Those are employers’ responses. What about the response of a 15-year-old this opinion directly impacts? How does she feel about the Supreme Court taking away her reproductive rights and body autonomy? Listen to this week’s episode of The Norah and Dad Show to find out. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, through your browser, and everywhere else you find podcasts.

(For more about the legal issues raised by the leaked opinion, I highly recommend Marc Alifanz‘s and Kate Bischoff‘s deep dive on the most recent episode of their Hostile Work Environment podcast.)

Here’s what else I read and listened to this past week that I think you should be, too

Labor Relations Radio, Ep. 21—Guest: Attorney Jon Hyman on What HR Can Take Away From The NLRB’s Starbucks Complaint — via Peter List’s Labor Union News

Starbucks problems: How a progressive company lost its way — via Fast Company

Starbucks Is Playing with Fire — via Slate

Target Workers Are Joining the Union Wave — via The New Republic

Amazon Fired a Pro-Union Worker. Workers Are Fighting Back. — via More Perfect Union

Go read this report about long hours and stressful work conditions at TikTok — via The Verge

How to Be a Mental Health Ally — via Harvard Business Review

The Anti-Work Movement — via HR Hero Line

Unlimited PTO and FMLA Policy — via Kate Bischoff

My male coworkers are insisting on taking “period leave” — via Ask a Manager

For Gen X, Y, and Z, the Future of Work Is Mobile — via EntertainHR