Affirmative Action
Ed C
27 Posts
My company currently has less than 50 employees but we are growing and may soon reach 50 FTE's.
Any advice on where I can find some Affirmative Action information to prepare for the near future. (It still starts at the 50 employee number, correct?)
Any advice on where I can find some Affirmative Action information to prepare for the near future. (It still starts at the 50 employee number, correct?)
Comments
(edit)Ray has added some language which shows you the cutoffs, but no information about developing an AAP, which was your question. Again, unless you are a government contractor, I can't recommend strongly enough that you have no reason to get into an AAP. And if you are a government contractor, you should already have received from the OFCCP a handbook detailing the AAP requirments. If not, you can find their number under DOL and request that they mail you the handbook.
If your company has a labor attorney, AND a gov't contract, I would start there, by asking him/her for a flat fee for developing your first AAP for you. If you do not have a labor attorney, you can ask any paralegal to give you a ballpark figure. Theirs will be a fifth of the one the attorney will give you. It is not an undertaking for the faint of heart or those who do not enjoy being swamped with data and detail.
Executive Order 11246
OFCCP administers and enforces Executive Order 11246, as amended, which prohibits federal contractors and federally-assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION REQUIREMENTS
Each Government contractor with 50 or more employees and $50,000 or more in government contracts is required to develop a written affirmative action program (AAP) for each of its establishments.
The written AAP is required if you have 50 or more ee's and receive at least $50k in revenue from govt contracts.
edit: Actually Don, the only question mark Ed used was at the end of his last sentence asking if 50 was the magic number. I included info stating that that was true and additionally there had to be govt contracts involved too.
We are an AA employer with well over $50,000 in federal contracts and 2,000 employees, so there is no doubt that we are required to have a written AA plan. It is a hassle. I have 2 full time employees devoted to writing and updating our plan and it takes most of their time. There are some good consultants out there and we have found in smaller operations it is cheaper to have a consultant write the plan and update it rather than to do it ourselves. I don't know where you are located but I use a guy in Tulsa, OK that is a retired OFCCP regional director. He really knows his stuff and doesn't charge an arm and a leg like some consultants. If you are interested, I will furnish his address and e-mail address upon request.
Thank you for responding with the Tulsa gentleman's email. [email]traceyr@murray-aviation.com[/email]
I sent the address and contact information to your e-mail address. As a bank you probably should find out for sure whether you are required to have a written AA plan or not. This consultant can tell you for sure. Let me know if you don't receive the information.
I agree with Don, I would not head down that road if it is not necessary. I think if you want some language to identify that you do not use race, religion, national origin, etc. in employment decisions (such as hiring), I would put a blurb in your handbook stating that you are an equal opportunity employer and do not make decision based on someone's ... (list the protected categories). Include a policy identifying the correct person(s) for ees to share these type of concerns to (maybe a number for the HR department, EEO Mgr.).
By doing this, you have a practice that is distributed to ees and will give you something to refer to if you have legal issues claiming disparate treatment. Much more simple than developing and updating an AAP.
Since you have more than 15 ees, Title VII applies to you, so I would get something in writing to protect the employer. By the way, once you reach 50, you can look forward to FMLA!
It's worth a try.