1. Chapter 5 Affirmative Action
Copyright  2015 McGraw-Hill Education.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

2. Learning Objectives
Understand the concept of affirmative action, why it was created, and studies concluding there needs to be more than a passive approach to achieve equal employment opportunity
Discuss why it is controversial, and arguments pro and con.
Name and distinguish the three types of Affirmative Action programs and plans
Understand the circumstances that can give rise to affirmative action, and safeguards to protect legitimate expectations of majority workers
Discover the range of specific tactics to overcome past discrimination
Define ’reverse discrimination’ and tell how it relates to affirmative action
Explain the value of workforce diversity, and give examples of ways to achieve it

3. What Is Affirmative Action?
Affirmative Action is the intentional inclusion of women and minorities in the workplace based on a finding of their previous exclusion and/or to address existing discrimination
Affirmative Action requires ER to take proactive steps to hire qualified women, minorities, or other statutorily mandated groups who are underrepresented in the workplace
Based on finding of previous exclusion
What specific, PROACTIVE tactics cab an employer use?
Expand outreach, recruitment to new groups
Mentoring, management training, and development
Hiring, training, promoting from groups that have tended to be left out of those processes
Does Affirmative Action go against the “spirit” of Title VII?
Title VII – “Passive,” prohibits employment discrimination
AA – “Active,” intentionally including EE previously excluded from a workplace

4. Does AA help/hinder progress toward equality of opportunity?
Pro: systems causing minority oppression endured for hundreds of years; continuing evidence of opportunity gaps (glass half-empty); demonstrated successes are everywhere; threat of Affirmative Action is important deterrent. BIGGEST MYTH: AA PROTECTs UNQUALIFIED EE (NO!)
Con: system is working (glass half-full); if discrimination is wrong, it’s always wrong; continuing stigma attaches to minority successes; government interference in the economy. BIGGEST CON…AA encourages reverse discrimination (i.e. White males unfairly penalized)?

5. Employment Research Findings
Women and minorities still lag behind in terms of opportunities, pay and promotions (THIS IS REALITY)
Research shows that people tend to notice value more quickly in someone who looks like them
Almost 90% of jobs are filled through word-of-mouth – fewer minorities and women being able to take advantage of those networks
Glass Ceiling Commission Report: white woman half of workforce but 5% of senior corporate jobs

6. How Do Affirmative Action Obligations Arise?
There are three ways in which affirmative action obligations arise:
Through Executive Order (government contractors)
Judicially, as a remedy for a persistent finding of discrimination under Title VII
Voluntarily, affirmative action established by an employer or union (i.e. Private ER can establish AA programs!)

7. E.O Provisions
Executive Order 11246: Requires federal government contractors (suppliers of goods, services) to remedy inadequate representation of women and minorities in their workplace
Who MUST COMPLY
GENERALLY SPEAKING…Private ER with 50 or more employees who have contracts with the federal government with goods or services worth $50,000 or more
In other words, if you do business with the government, you may be legally required to have an AA program
Also note that all PUBLIC ER (schools, universities, gov’t, etc.) are required to have an AA program
Enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)
Increases compliance requirements based on the size ($) of the contract(s)

8. EO Affirmative Action Plans (1)
Affirmative action plan: Must be developed according to the rules set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations part 60-2
A management tool…The AA plan should contain placement goals for inclusion of women and minorities in the workplace and timetables for accomplishing the goals
Underrepresentation / Underutilization: Significantly fewer minorities or woman in the workplace than relevant statistics indicate are available
Or their qualifications indicate they should be working at better jobs
Organizational profile: Staffing patterns showing organizational units
Their relationship to each other; and gender, race
Ethnic composition
Job group analysis: Combines job titles with similar content, wage rates, and opportunities

9. EO Affirmative Action Plans (2)
Availability: Minorities and women in a geographic area who are qualified for a particular position
Factors used to determine availability:
The percentage of minorities or women with requisite skills in the reasonable recruitment area
The percentage of minorities or women among those promotable, transferable, and trainable within the contractor’s organization

10. EO Affirmative Action Plans (3)
Placement goal: Percentage of women and/or minorities to be hired or promoted to correct underrepresentation
Based on reasonable availability in the geographic area
Quotas are expressly forbidden
Action-oriented, more than business-as-usual
OFCCP audits: good-faith, measurable progress
Corporate management compliance evaluations: Evaluations of mid- and senior-level employee advancement for artificial barriers to advancement of women and minorities
OFCCP Equal Opportunity Survey every year

11. Penalties for Noncompliance (1)
What is important to OFCCP?
The nature and extent of the contractor’s good-faith affirmative action activities
The appropriateness of those activities to the problems the contractor has identified in the workplace
The Department of Labor/OFCCP or the appropriate contracting agency can impose a number of monetary penalties on the employer, including “debarment” (banning company from future contracts for a period of time)
The DOL/OFCCP must make reasonable efforts to secure compliance by conference, conciliation, mediation, and persuasion before requesting the U.S. Attorney General to act, or before canceling or surrendering a contract

12. Judicial Affirmative Action
Judicial affirmative action: Affirmative action ordered by a court, rather than arising from Executive Order 11246
There are no specific requirements as to what form an affirmative action plan must take
Creatures of judicial remedy: context is key
Case: Local 28, Sheet Metal Workers v. E.E.O.C.
Union found to have violated Title VII, yet union didn’t follow court order
Union said ruling violated Title VII, Section 706(g) because “preferential relief” only applied to actual victims
SC upheld Court of Appeals…there need not be a showing of discrimination against the particular individual (EE, applicant, promotion candidate, etc.) as long as the AA plan meets appropriate requirements and the individual fits into the category of EE the plan was designed to benefit
Take-Away: Quotas are a No-No, HOWEVER court will allow TEMPORARY quotas only when ER (or unions) don’t comply for outrageous violations of discrimination or the law
Scenario 1

13. Voluntary Affirmative Action
Employer or union institutes affirmative action plan on it own, compelled by neither EO or court.
United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO v. Weber (landmark case dealing with VOLUNTARY AA)
Proactive measure to avoid future discrimination claims
Scenario 2 (it is permissible for an ER to have voluntary AA plan so long as certain conditions are met)
CONDITIONS OF A VALID AA PLAN (IMPORTANT):
Identify problem of a racial or gender imbalance
Have a problem, needs to get fixed
Not “unnecessarily trammel” rights of majority workers
Nobody gets fired
No quotas or bar
ER can NOT set aside positions or seats for minority or females
This is where most AA plans FAIL
Temporary (not permanent)
Goal is to ATTAIN a balanced workforce, not MAINTAIN one
AA plans should be constantly reviewed
Narrowly tailored to address under-representation
Not intended to maintain racial or gender imbalance but eliminating a manifest racial, gender imbalance

14. Reverse Discrimination
Reverse discrimination: Claim brought by majority member
who feels adversely affected by the use of an employer’s affirmative action plan
mistakenly considered as the flip side of affirmative action
Scenario 3
Reverse discrimination accounts for only about 3 percent of the charges filed with EEOC
Case: Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, CA

15. Affirmative Action and Veterans
Jobs for Veterans Act of 2002.
Federal contractors must take affirmative action to hire and promote qualified veterans.
Under the law, generally, “qualified targeted veterans are entitled to priority for referral to federal contractor job openings”
Also administered by OFCCP

16. Valuing Diversity/Multiculturalism
Hudson Institute Report: Workforce 2000
Valuing diversity: Learning to accept and appreciate those who are different from the majority and value their contributions to the workplace
Mirrors population, workforce changes
Also reflects rise in buying power of diverse customer base
Decisions with limited input likely to be sub-optimal