THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506050174
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
PART TWO
BUSINESS
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
What is Affirmative
Action?
The term describes proactive steps taken by the government or the private sector to create a more racially and sexually diverse work force. In addition to hiring, some programs focus on broadening the pool of government contractors. Colleges use affirmative action plans to diversify their student bodies.
While anti-discrimination laws may aim at the same results, they aren't technically considered affirmative action and are not targeted for elimination.
What are
the Types?
Most stringent are quotas or ``set-asides,'' which require that a certain number of positions or contract dollars go to minorities or women.
Next are policies that stress ``goals and timetables'' for creating more diverse employment, admissions or contracting. Such policies don't mandate a result, but critics claim ``goals'' often lead to internal quotas.
Other forms of affirmative action include active recruiting of minorities and women, and stressing the use of benefits, such as continuing education, to improve their skills.
How Many
Programs
Do We Have?
At the request of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole,
R-Kan., the Congressional Research Service has turned up 160 federal laws and regulations setting affirmative action goals or other preferences based on race, gender or ethnicity.
About one-third set numerical goals and quotas, about one-third gave preferences to members of various groups, and about one-third ``encouraged'' diverse hiring and contracting.
Many private employers and some state and local governments also have affirmative action plans.
Where are the
Teeth?
The federal government can use the power of the purse to deny contracts to employers who don't diversify their work forces, and can deny federal funds to colleges and universities that don't broaden their student populations. But government can't force private employers who aren't discriminating to diversify.
Affirmative action in the private sector is either court ordered as a result of ``egregious'' discrimination, or is voluntary as a way of avoiding discrimination lawsuits.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission monitors discrimination complaints. It oversaw $3.1 million in settlements in Virginia in 1994. But EEOC officials also say they're understaffed. Nationally, about 100,000 cases are pending.
How Prevalent
is Reverse
Discrimination?
A Labor Department analysis has found affirmative action programs do not lead to widespread reverse discrimination claims by whites, and a ``high proportion'' of claims that are filed are found to lack merit.
The findings disputed theories that affirmative action has helped unqualified minorities and women at the expense of white males. ``White males are no less able to invoke the civil rights acts than are women and minorities who have filed nearly a million and a half claims since 1965,'' the report said.
The preliminary analysis, conducted by Rutgers University law professor Alfred W. Blumrosen, found fewer than 100 reverse discrimination cases among more than 3,000 discrimination opinions by U.S. District Courts and Courts of Appeal between 1990 and 1994.
Reverse discrimination was established in six cases and relieved by the courts, Blumrosen found. ``The paucity of reported cases cast doubt on the dimension of the `reverse discrimination' problem,'' he wrote. ``Nothing in these cases would justify dismantling the existing structure of equal employment opportunity programs.''
Many economists say there are few statistical reasons for such white anger with affirmative action.
The percentage of black managers and professionals rose only slightly between 1983 and 1993, to 6.6 percent. The increase among women was greater, from 40.9 percent to 47.8 percent.
What are Some
Examples on the
Federal Level?
The Small Business Administration's 8(a) program authorizes small, noncompetitive contracts for supplies and services between the government and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. Almost all are women or minorities. The $4.3 billion dispensed annually by the SBA accounts for about half of government contracts going to minority firms.
If possible, at least 10 percent of contracts for consumer services at federally aided airports must go to small businesses by the socially and economically disadvantaged. Prime contractors on surface-transportation jobs are asked to subcontract 10 percent of the work to disadvantaged firms. The Defense Department's goal is to award 5 percent of procurement, contruction, and other work to disadvantaged individuals.
States participating in certain rural economic development and various other federal programs are encouraged to use minority-owned banks.
The State Level?
Since the early 1970s, every Virginia governor has issued an executive order prohibiting racial and sexual discrimination in employment, and directing personnel officials to take affirmative measures to recruit a diverse work force. But there are no quotas or formal hiring goals, and the directives also specify that qualifications or performance can't be lowered to accommodate such employees.
Two state offices deal with affirmative action. The Office of Equal Employment Services encourages recruitment and training of minorities and women. It also investigates discrimination complaints. In 1993, the office considered 152 discrimination complaints and determined that about 10 percent were valid.
The Department of Minority Business Enterprise encourages bidding on contracts by minority firms. Under the Wilder administration, from January 1990 to January 1994, the amount of state work going to those companies grew from three to five percent. Figures for the first year of the Allen administration aren't available.
Private Industry?
All employers with federal contracts over $50,000 have to file affirmative action plans with the government, setting minority and female hiring goals and timetables. Their good faith efforts to meet those goals are periodically reviewed. By one estimate, companies subject to such review account for about one-third of the nation's workforce.
Private employers aren't required to adopt affirmative action plans, unless they are under order to remedy egregious violations of the law or have entered into a consent decree to settle claims.
Many firms have voluntarily adopted plans. The EEOC has guidelines to protect them from charges of reverse discrimination. ILLUSTRATION: RACIAL MAKEUP OF HAMPTON ROADS
Chart
[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]
UNEMPLOYMENT
Chart
[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]
SOURCE: 1990 Census
KEYWORDS: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION by CNB