Click here for the Discrimination TBT Script in English

Click here for the Discrimination Poster in English

Toolbox Talk – Discrimination

• The Company’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy and RPM’s Values and Expectations of 168 prohibit discrimination.

• The type of discrimination that violates our policies includes factoring, for example, race, national origin, age, sex, or other protected characteristics, into the basis of an employment decision.

• For example, our policies prohibit a supervisor from terminating, demoting, or disciplining an associate because the associate is Hispanic or female.

• It also violates our policies to distinguish between associates or treat them differently on the basis of a protected characteristic.

• For example, it would be against Company policy to give raises to only Belgian associates and no one else, because the associates are from Belgium.

• But to be clear, on the other hand, it would not be prohibited discrimination for managers to distinguish or notice differences between associates based on their work experience, their skill sets, or their work performance.

• For example, a manager might discipline Ling for making a mistake on the production line, but not discipline Joey for making the same mistake because Ling has made the same mistake 5 times and has been instructed on how to do the task correctly and this is Joey’s first time making the mistake and it’s his first day on the job.

• However, it would violate our policies, if in that example, both Ling and Joey had the same history of making the same mistake, and the manager only disciplined Ling because she is Chinese or a woman.

• Along with that, the Company prohibits discrimination or harassment by coworkers.

• That includes, using racial slurs in the workplace, horse play and joking with discriminatory undertones, or the use of hate symbols.

• Hate symbols include things like swastikas, nooses, unequal signs, confederate flags, race-based cartoons and images, and racially hostile signs, for example.

• If you see or experience discrimination, harassment, or you see hate symbols in the workplace, please immediately report it to a supervisor, Human Resources, the Legal and Compliance department, or call RPM’s hotline.