IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory is dropping plans to require workers to attend a training session on homosexuality in the workplace after receiving objections based on religious principles.
The laboratory had scheduled mandatory attendance at a presentation by Dave Pallone, a gay umpire who formerly worked for Major League Baseball, designed to educate workers about sensitivity to homosexuals in the workplace.There have been a number of incidents at the Idaho plant in which gay employees have overheard conversations they did not appreciate, said Bernie Meyers, president of Bechtel BWXT Idaho.
Meyers eventually received more than 50 e-mails from employees who said the mandatory training would clash with moral and religious beliefs that view homosexuality as a sin.
The controversy has generated more complaints than any other issue since Bechtel took over as the site's contractor last October, officials said. Some workers said they would not attend and questioned what would happen to them.
Employees also contacted Idaho's congressional delegation, asking why the government was using taxpayer money to promote homosexuality.
Meyers said the training session was never intended to change people's beliefs about whether homosexuality is right or wrong. It was to let them know how to make the workplace less difficult for gay people to do their jobs.
He said he does not want to send a message that being sensitive to co-workers' sexual orientation is not important. But he also decided he could not force employees to listen to a presentation about something they object to on moral or religious grounds.
"We felt it was important that this was something to be discussed at the site," Meyers said. "When we got the feedback, we felt it was important to respond to that feedback."
Employees still must watch a videotaped presentation by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, which addresses racial profiling and other forms of discrimination. But the training sessions on May 8 and 9 will be optional.
The laboratory has also broadened the sessions to include speakers on race and gender, as well as Pallone's talk, billed as "a revealing look at baseball and life through the eyes of a gay man."