Introduction
As an expected federal subcontractor, our organization seeks to ensure that it fully complies with the Equal Employment Opportunity requirements before accepting to enter into a contract with the main federal contractor, a company that has been one of our faithful customers. Our organization recognizes the fact that all the mandated provisions under the EEO originate from the American laws that pertain to the discrimination and civil rights acts as well as from the federal contract regulations (Felsberg, 2005).
Therefore, the purpose of analyzing and developing a comprehensive analysis of the EEO requirement is to ensure that the organization has a comprehensive affirmative action plan in order to avoid any case of discrimination when the offer for subcontracting is accepted. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive and critical analysis of the additional EEO compliance that impacts the organization as a federal subcontractor. This paper also discusses the important components of the affirmative action plan by expanding the organizational goal-setting. Moreover, it discusses the process of relating the affirmative action goals to the organizational strategic plan for human resources.
Critical Analysis of the EEO Compliance for the Federal Subcontractors
The initial issue to consider is the determination of whether the company is covered under the EEO specifications or not. Noteworthy, the company is a non-construction organization with more than 50 employees and is considering taking a federal subcontract worth more than $50,000, which means that it is covered and should develop a comprehensive Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) to ensure equal employment opportunities when the contract is in progress (Felsberg, 2005).
Within the planned AAP, the first section relates to the compliance with the Executive Order 11246 (E.O 11246) that prohibits federal subcontractors from discriminating in employment decisions based on human characteristics and differences such as race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sex and color. This order specifies that the company is to take favorable actions to guarantee that there is equal opportunity in all aspects of its employment. Therefore, the company’s AAP should be based on this order and will seek to comply with all the other requirements under different statutes and regulations that impact on its proposed subcontracting business.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 seeks to ensure that companies working as contractors and subcontractors under the federally funded projects exceeding $10,000 take affirmative action to ensure that individuals with disabilities are hired, retained and promoted (Leuchovius, 2010). The proposed AAP at the company must have a clause on equal opportunity in all the aspects of subcontracting. Under section 503 of the Act, the company is required to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure that it provides a given percentage of its available employment slots offered to people with disabilities.
Given that the proposed subcontract involves developing plastic objects, it is the role of the human resource office to identify the specific areas of labor to accommodate people with disabilities. It is suggested that the suitable categories would include the deaf and physically disabled people, but exclude the mentally and visually disabled individuals, since the business involved requires adequate use of visual and brain work.
Secondly, the company must comply fully with the requirements under the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA). This statute requires federal subcontractors to ensure that they have affirmative action in employing specific categories of American veterans and prohibiting discriminations against them (Department of Labor, 2010). The company’s AAP must develop a comprehensive plan to ensure that it lists its employment openings with the right employment service system (Department of Labor, 2010).
Newspapers are some of the most important employment service systems because they make the list of openings available to the public. In addition, the plan should ensure that veterans are among the groups of applicants given priority in referral to the company’s openings. The plan should also ensure that the company piles up and presents the annual report on the number of its workers who are described as veterans and protected by the Act. It should ensure that at least 8% of the workforce at any time is composed of the veterans based on the best available data.
Thirdly, the AAP developed by the company should ensure that it provides a drug-free workplace during the proposed federal subcontract project. There is a need to ensure that employees are not subjected to drugs at the workplace. Although the company is not affected by Under the Drug-Free Workplace Act because it will be a subcontractor, it is crucial to ensure that the employees’ rights to a drug-free working environment are respected (Department of Labor, 2011). The company should certify that it will provide its employees with a drug-free environment at the workplace. Although there should be no drug and alcohol testing, it is vital for the company to authorize simple testing as a mean of maintaining a drug-free environment when the work starts (Cranford, 1998).
The company’s AAP should also include a clause ensuring that the process of checking whether the employees are eligible for employment under the federal laws is accomplished using the E-Verify system (Department of Labor, 2012). This should be done during hiring to ensure that the individuals selected for recruitment meet all the requirements under both the federal and state laws on employment and hiring. The company should also use this system to determine the work authorization of the recruited individuals.
The nature of the proposed AAP
The proposed AAP will act as the document providing guidelines on employment procedure to ensure that the company hires eligible and authorized individuals. In addition, it should provide guidelines on how to meet the requirements relating to the prevention of discrimination of individuals based on color, ethnicity, origin and race, as well as discrimination of the disabled and veterans. As such, the process of developing a comprehensive AAP will require four distinct steps.
First, the company will need to analyze personnel-selection decisions and compensation practices to ensure that the procedures involved are fair and consistent with the laws and regulations involved (Department of Labor, 2013). This should be in regards to the processes of hiring, application flow, promotions and terminations.
Secondly, the company will need to establish statistical placement targets for recruiting and hiring veterans. It will also require statistical placement goals for hiring minorities, women and the disabled people (Department of Labor, 2013). This will be done by job groups, targeting areas of underutilization of specific skills that require a certain gender or physical ability.
Thirdly, the company’s AAP must design equal employment opportunity policy and an outreach program that focus and establish organizational efforts to recruit minorities, women, veterans and the disabled in good faith (Department of Labor, 2013).
Finally, the AAP will develop implementing procedures and processes that seek to provide a comprehensive documentation and compliance with the requirements for notification, record-keeping and posting, as well as reporting of corporate obligations that affect the employed individuals once the federal subcontract project begins.
Conclusion
This paper highlights the important aspects of the AAP that the company should develop and adopt to avoid violating the legal requirements relating to discrimination of women, minority groups, the disabled and the veterans. In addition, it shows the required criteria for ensuring that the workplace is drug-free. The critical aspects of the AAP have been distilled; and four major criteria against which the company should develop its AAP to meet all the legal requirements were emphasized.
References
Cranford, M. (1998). Drug Testing and the Right to Privacy: Arguing the Ethics of Workplace Drug Testing. Journal of Business Ethics, 17(16), 1805.
Department of Labor. (2010). The Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act. Web.
Department of Labor. (2011). Drug-Free Workplace Act. Web.
Department of Labor. (2012). E.O. 12989 E-Verify for Federal Contractors. Washington, DC: DOL.
Department of Labor. (2013). Sample affirmative action program (AAP). Web.
Felsberg, E. J. (2005). Affirmative action overview for federal contractors. Employment Relations Today, 32(2), 101-105.
Leuchovius, D. (2010). The Rehabilitation Act and ADA Connection. Web.