Transgender employee awarded thousands after employer refused to change her name

A company has been ordered to pay out a huge settlement, as well as issue a personal apology, to a transgender employee who experienced sexist discrimination.

Britney Austin, a former worker at Deluxe Financial Services, has been awarded $115,000 (£81,300) in a court case against management at her previous workplace. Austin alleged that she was victim to anti-transgender slurs from colleagues, and that she had been banned from using the female bathrooms.

She went on to claim that her employers refused to allow her to change her name on company records from male to female, and that Deluxe would not offer her health insurance coverage for transition-related care. BuzzFeed also reports that the company denied her the state COBRA pay and any severance package when she was made redundant.

Deluxe denied any wrongdoing, saying that they did not treat Austin unfairly. However, they did agree to improve the working conditions for LGBTQ employees in the future.