Labor Department Eliminates Tool For Employment Discrimination Enforcement

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/4171

Labor Department Eliminates Tool For Employment Discrimination Enforcement

By Doug Cunningham

The U.S. Department of Labor is eliminating the Equal Opportunity Survey, a tool for identifying and investigating federal contractors that discriminate against women and people of color. Jocelyn Samuels of the national Women’s Law Center says this is the latest in an across the board undermining of civil liberties protections by the Bush administration…

: “This decision to rescind the Equal Opportunity Survey will be a tremendous disservice to enforcement efforts and to the employees in the workforce who are intended to be protected."

Samuels says elimination of the Equal Opportunity Survey lets federal contractors who discriminate off the hook and fails to protect workers from sex and race discrimination in federal projects.


AUDIO link: http://www.laborradio.org/files/lo/winsheadlines.ram

[Erika]

1. The GOP never met a worker they respected

Only the employers are worthy of their respect.

[rodeodance]

2. so, the WH squashes anti-discrimination tools--but wants spying on US

citizens tools (NSA)

[Triana]

3. Mysogenist, racist pigs = GOP

They've hated Affirmative Action since it was put in place. It's yet another thing on their hit list, along with abortion, birth control, and any and all social services.

There's a reason the KKK supported them in 2000 (and maybe in 2004).

[charlottelouise]

5. It's beyond Affirmative Action

What's happening here is that basic EEO (equal employment opportunity) is being gutted; the DoL is eliminating a basic tool for determining whether or not employment discrimination exists.

It's possible to argue over the merits of affirmative action -- targeted hiring to reduce the impact of prior discrimination -- but in this case, we're seeing a deliberate effort not to enforce basic legal provisions, dating back to the early 1960's, designed to prevent employment discrimination.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone; a Washington Post article from 2005 (posted here at DU also) details how the Department of Justice has drastically decreased enforcement of EEO.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

What good does it do to have the laws if they aren't enforced ?

Finally, there's something else to keep a lookout for – changes in The Uniform Guidelines on Employment Selection Procedures. This particular document (published in the Federal Register in 1978, lays out the precise methods used to determine whether disparate impact employment discrimination (1) exists. It would be soeasy to sneak in changes here. Changes in these administrative guidelines don’t require congressional approval. It was by a change in administrative guidelines that the DoL was able to eviscerate overtime provisions back in 2004 – something that few people noticed until it happened.

It's a highly technical document, but here it is:

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/Title_41/Part_60-3/toc.ht...

(1) EEO suits can be brought on the basis of disparate treatment – there is some specific provision in an HR procedure that adversely impacts members of a protected class (race, gender, national origin, etc.). The alternative is disparate impact – there is no identifiable discriminatory component, but the proportion of protected class members hired is significantly lower than the proportion of majority group members hired. This is the type of employment discrimination that the big lawsuits are based on and it could very easily be redefined out of existence.

[Triana]

7. I tried to get protection under the EEO back in the 80s....

...and it sucked then. There were layoffs and a disparate number of minorities were laid off (blacks, asians, women) from this company. Several of us went and reported it. They investigated it and decided it was nothing. But it was SOO BLATANT. Even HR people told us it was unfair. Others who hadn't been laid off told us to pursue it. It was SO UTTERLY obvious.

So, if EEO didn't work then, and they're just doing away with it, I'm not surprised. It needs to be STRENGTHENED, not weakened or done away with but the truth is, they've (Republicans) have been gutting the agency for decades, starving it of funds, and authority, personnel to pursue cases, etc. - and weakening the laws, or doing away with them.

All we can hope is that if/when we ever get a REAL President and a decent or even half-decent administration, we can revive and strengthen the agency or create a new one.

[cap]

4. this is huge!!!!

[Ezlivin]

6. Kick

This needs to get out there!