Equal Employment Opportunity Programs

Federal EEO Requirements

U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

EEO-4 (STATE AND GOVERNMENT INFORMATION REPORT) DATA COLLECTION

The State and Local Government Information Report (EEO-4), EEOC Form 164, also referred to as the EEO-4 Report, is a mandatory biennial data collection that requires all State and local governments with 100 or more employees to submit demographic workforce data, including data by race/ethnicity, sex, job category, and salary band. The filing by eligible State and local governments is required under section 709(c) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-8(c), 29 CFR 1602.30 and .32-.37.

Link: County of Los Angeles EEOC EEO4-Report

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE – OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY PLAN

The Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Plan is required by a federal regulation that implements the provision prohibiting employment discrimination in the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.

An EEOP is a comprehensive workforce report that certain recipients must develop and implement in an ongoing manner as a condition of receiving Department of Justice funding subject to the civil rights provisions of the Safe Streets Act. A written EEO Plan is a component of a recipient’s EEO Program that describes in detail the recipient’s efforts to ensure equal employment opportunities for men and women regardless of sex, race, or national origin.

Link: County of Los Angeles DOJ EEO Plan

EEO Plans

The Equal Employment Opportunity Plan (EEO Plan) is a management tool designed to ensure equal employment opportunity.  A central premise underlying affirmative action/EEO is that, over time, absent discrimination, the County of Los Angeles’ workforce will generally reflect the gender, racial, and ethnic profile of the labor force from which it recruits and selects.

An EEO Program includes policies, practices, and procedures that departments must implement to ensure that all qualified applicants and employees are receiving an equal opportunity for recruitment, selection, advancement, and other terms and privileges associated with employment.

PURPOSE

The purpose of an EEO Plan is to prevent discrimination by conducting workforce utilization analyses and responding to areas of concern.  The EEO Plan is a commitment to practice and supports EEO in the County’s workforce.  This commitment ensures a non-discriminatory workplace where individuals are valued for their differences as well as their similarities.

COMPONENTS

An EEO Plan contains a workforce utilization analysis designed to evaluate the composition of a county’s departmental workforce and compares it to the composition of the relevant labor force. When the percentage of a race, ethnic, and/or gender group in an occupation is less than would reasonably be expected by their availability percentage, underutilization exists.  Other EEO Plan components include (1) Action-Oriented Programs – specific practical steps designed to address the areas of underutilization; and (2) Internal Auditing and Reporting Systems – a means of measuring the department’s progress toward achieving the workforce that would be expected in the absence of discrimination.

WORKFORCE UTILIZATION ANALYSIS (WUA)

An EEO Plan contains a workforce utilization analysis designed to evaluate the composition of an organizational workforce and compares it to the composition of the relevant labor force. When the percentage of an EEO group in an occupation is less than would reasonably be expected by their availability percentage, underutilization exists.  When underutilization is found, further statistical analysis is required to determine if the underutilization is statistically significant.

EEO PLANS POST PROP 209

The 1996 California Proposition 209 prohibits discrimination or preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

EEO Best Practices

To protect against accusations of discriminatory hiring processes and ensure the County benefits from a diverse workforce, invest in “diversity of thought” for the workforce.  Provide all individuals with an equal opportunity to showcase their skills and competencies and find employment.

EEO History

ROOTS OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Affirmative action finds its roots as outgrowth of efforts dating back to the 1950s and 1960s to remedy discrimination practiced against women and racial/ethnic minorities in employment.  The first government push for affirmative action can be traced back to 1961 when President John F. Kennedy engaged the corporate community with Executive Order 10925, which required federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that race, creed, color, or national origin did not play a part in their treatment of job applicants or employees.  Subsequently, the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964 was passed by Congress to prohibit discrimination in all aspects of employment.  To ensure that all complaints of employment discrimination are addressed, the County of Los Angeles has a County Policy of Equity that investigates all charges of discrimination covered by the CRA of 1964 and other federal, state, and County non-discrimination laws.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PLAN MODEL

The genesis of an Affirmative Action Plan can be traced back to the enforcement of the provisions of the CRA of 1964 and the establishment of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFFCP) under the U.S. Department of Labor.  The OFCCP’s affirmative action model became the blueprint for many employers throughout the country and became the benchmark model for many state and local governments.  The initial affirmative action plan design has evolved into the Equal Employment Opportunity Plan and currently is in effect for the County of Los Angeles.

The affirmative action plan model required the employer to thoroughly evaluate their employment practices to determine if they excluded, disadvantaged, or restricted employment opportunities for members of protected groups (African Americans, Hispanic/Latino, Asian & Pacific Islander, American Indian, Filipino).  The plan outlined the good-faith efforts the employer conducted to achieve equal opportunity for these groups, particularly if a group was underutilized.  The employer determined utilization by conducting a statistical analysis of workforce data, which compares the availability of women and minorities in the relevant labor market with these groups’ current representation in the employer’s workforce.  When the utilization analysis identified the underutilization of women or minorities, the employer established efforts to correct the deficiency.  These established good-faith efforts were used to recruit and hire or promote qualified women and minority candidates.

THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION (EEOC) AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an enforcement agency for federal non-discrimination laws involving discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.  As an enforcement agency, the EEOC has the authority to use affirmative action goals and timetables as a remedy for an employer to implement when a finding of systemic or adverse impact employment discrimination is found against a protected group.  The EEOC also issued Affirmative Action Guidelines in 1979 that state when an employer takes voluntary and legally appropriate affirmative action measures to remedy past discrimination, the EEOC will not find the employer liable for reverse discrimination.  The EEOC guidelines indicate that the affirmative action plan must be designed to achieve the purposes of Title VII, to break down the old patterns of segregation, and to overcome the effects of past or present practices, policies, or other barriers to equal employment opportunity.  The plan must be a concerted reasoned program and be in effect only as long as necessary to achieve its objectives and avoid unnecessary restrictions on opportunities for the workforce as a whole.

GOALS VS. QUOTAS AND CURRENT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROHIBITIONS

Since 1972 the OFCCP has specifically prohibited the use of quotas that specify a hiring or promotion decision based on a racial or gender preference.  The OFCCP policy is explicit in that “at no time is there any expectation or requirement that people be employed by quotas and that affirmative action means engaging in good-faith efforts to broaden the pool for hiring and promotion.”  The OFCCP rules go on to state that “goals may not be rigid and inflexible quotas which must be met but must be targets reasonably attainable by means of applying every good-faith effort to make the affirmative action program work, and that goals are not to be used to discriminate against any applicant or employee because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

PROPOSITION 209 (PROP 209)

Since the passage of the California Civil Rights Initiative in 1996, better known as Proposition 209, and similar measures in other states, there has been much confusion and misinformation about affirmative action.  Proposition 209 eliminated preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in California State and local government in the areas of public employment, public education, and public contracting.  In all instances, the County does not permit the use of preferences, quotas, or set-asides, but employs the use of good-faith efforts to encourage greater participation of all groups. These good faith efforts are aspirational and function as benchmarks based on the availability of qualified individuals to compete for jobs or County contracts.

In the County of Los Angeles, the Equal Employment Opportunity Plan for employment, Community Business Enterprise Program, and Contract Compliance Program for public contracting are programs to implement voluntary good-faith efforts to create access and opportunity for all groups in employment and public contracting.