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City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today urged ExxonMobil shareholders to vote in favor of a proposal by two New York City Pension Funds to specifically prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Shareholders will vote on the proposal at ExxonMobil’s annual meeting on May 31, 2006, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas.

The proposal was filed on behalf of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System and the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund. The measure calls for ExxonMobil to amend its Equal Employment Opportunity policy to explicitly bar discrimination based on sexual orientation, and to substantially implement that policy.

Shareholder support for the proposal has increased in each of the seven years it has been submitted on behalf of New York City pension funds. Last year, it was supported by 29.4 percent of shares voted at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders.

“It’s time for ExxonMobil to end its entrenched resistance to the adoption of an enlightened corporate policy that would help to insure that all employees are treated with respect and dignity, irrespective of their sexual orientation. I am hopeful that ExxonMobil’s shareholders will send a clear message to the Board of Directors that the company must follow the path charted by so many of America’s largest companies and actively take steps to strengthen protections for gay and lesbian workers.”

The New York City Pension Funds have nearly 19.9 million shares valued at more than $1.2 billion in ExxonMobil. NYCERS has 7.9 million shares valued at $494 million in ExxonMobil, and the Fire Pension Fund has more than 1 million shares valued at more than $64 million.

The proposal contends that ExxonMobil does not explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in its EEO policy, while industry peers – such as Amerada Hess, BP, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell Oil, and Sunoco – do so, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

More than 80% of Fortune 500 companies have adopted written nondiscrimination policies prohibiting harassment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as have more than 95% of Fortune 100 companies, HRC reports.

“We believe that corporations that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation have a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining employees from the widest talent pool,” the measure reads. “National public opinion polls consistently find more than three quarters of the American people support equal rights in the workplace for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals; for example, in a Gallup poll conducted in March 2003, 88% of respondents favored equal opportunity in employment for gays and lesbians.”

ExxonMobil’s Board of Directors is recommending that shareholders vote against the proposal, maintaining that its policies cover sexual orientation and address its worldwide operations.

Thompson serves on the NYCERS Board of Trustees with: New York City Finance Commissioner MStark (Chair); New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum; Borough Presidents Scott Stringer (Manhattan), Helen Marshall (Queens), Marty Markowitz (Brooklyn), Adolfo Carrion (Bronx), and James Molinaro (Staten Island); Lillian Roberts, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Roger Toussaint, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; and, Carroll (Carl) Haynes, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

Besides Thompson, trustees on the Fire Department Pension Fund are: Mayor Michael Bloomberg; New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta (Chair); New York City Finance Commissioner Martha E. Stark; Stephen Cassidy, President, James Slevin, Vice President, Robert Straub, Treasurer, and John Kelly, Brooklyn Representative and Chair, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York; Peter Gorman, President and Captains’ Rep., Nicholas J. Visconti, Chiefs’ Rep., and Stephen J. Carbone, Lieutenants’ Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Association; and, Joseph Gagliardi, Marine Engineers Association.