Jim Higgins - WARNING! The Door Of Discrimination Swings Both Ways

Ask a person on the street what Affirmative Action or Equal Employment Opportunity is all about and you are more than likely going to get an answer such as "it's a requirement to hire women and minorities"or "it establishes a quota that companies must follow to hire women and minorities" or worse yet, "it is designed to discriminate against men and whites." Sadly, I actually developed a test for an employer that will go unnamed who, when I told them that "the only group in your workforce that is underrepresented, are white males" they told me, "They don't count."

The fact of the matter is that there is a lot of misnunderstanding on the part of many with respect to what equal employment opportunity and affirmative action is about. In reality, it is fundamentally about fairness. It is about making sure that NO person, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or national origin is discriminated against on those characteristics. EEO law has firmly laid a foundation that says all personnel selection decisions should be made on the basis of a person's "job-related" abilities and their readiness to perform the critical duties required on the job. Furthermore, each employee should be compensated--not based on their gender or ethnicity--but on their training, experience, and job performance. These are ideals that any sane person will find worthy and desirable in a vibrant, creative, and productive society.

This brings us to the case of the US Labor Department vs Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats in Vernon, Texas. It is not uncommon when one hears about a settlement related to hiring discrimination to learn that it is found that a company discriminated against minorities or women. In this case, Tyson agreed to settle findings of hiring discrimination against 157 African-Americans who had applied for laborer positions.

What may be more surprising to some is that the case also found evidence of discrimination against 375 white/Caucasian applicants. The OFCCP investigators found that African-American and Caucasian applicants were less likely to be hired than similarly situated Hispanic applicants over a two-year period.

What did it cost Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats? They will pay a total of $560,000 in back pay and interest to the 532 applicants. They will also make job offers to 59 of the 532 eligible class members as laborer positions become available and revise their practices, procedures and policies that it uses to recruit, track and hire applicants in order to fully comply with the law. They will immediately correct the discriminatory practices.

Did Tyson "mean" to discriminate. The answer to that question is beyond the scope of the conciliation agreement to answer. Personally, I believe that they did not. Rather, I believe that they fell into the trap that many employers fall in to but who have not been caught--yet. That trap is the failure to proactively evaluate their selection procedures and make sure that they are valid; job-related and consistent with business necessity.

If you are one of those organizations, don't wait to be found out. Take steps today to ensure that the procedures you use to assess, select, promote, and compensate your employees are valid. Make sure that you have a quality job analysis identifying the essential job duties and the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform those duties. Make sure your assessment procedures are valid and as objective as possible. Track your applicants at each step of the assessment process. If for some reason you find statistically significant differences between gender or ethnic groups, find out why and take steps to address the issue.

The time is now, becore it costs you money and that most valuable of all commodities...your company's good reputation.

For more information on how you can validate your selection procedures or assess your compensation practices for possible pay discrimination, visit www.AffirmativeActionServices.com.