Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action
In the United States Affirmative Action refers to programs, laws and social policies to overcome the effects of and discrimination that limits opportunities for a variety of demographic groups in various social institutions. Affirmative Action is meant to allocate a certain number of employment opportunities for members of the specific groups such as minorities and women.
Affirmative Action regulations are policies used in the United States in increase employment opportunities for minorities by favoring them in hiring and promotion, college admission and the awarding of government contracts. Minorities may include any underrepresented group, as on defined by race, ethnicity or gender. In general affirmative action has been undertaken by governments, business and or educational institutions to remedy the effects of past discrimination against a group, whether by a specific entity such as a corporation or by society as a whole.
Until the mid-1960’s legal barriers prevented blacks and other racial minorities in the United States from entering many jobs and educational institutions. However, women were rarely barred from jobs or education, many universities would not allow them entry and many companies would not hire them. The Civil rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and employment was the first legislation to address these barriers. Title VII banned discrimination in employment laid the groundwork for subsequent development of affirmative action. The Civil Rights Act laid the ground work for The Equal Employment Opportunity commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance which became important enforcement agencies for affirmative action.
Present John F. Kennedy was the first president to use the term affirmative action in 1961 signing Executive Order 10925. The order stated that contractors doing business with the government will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and employees are treated during their employment without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin.
President Richard Nixon was the first to implement federal policies designed to guarantee minority hiring in response to continual racial inequalities in the workforce. In 1969 the Nixon administration developed the Philadelphia Plan, requiring contractors working on federally assisted projects set specific goals for hiring minorities.
From conception of affirmative action in the United States in the 1960’s there has been controversy. Critics charge that affirmative action policies which give preferential treatment to people based on their membership in a group, violate the principal that all individuals are equal under the law. It is argued that is unfair to discriminate against members of one group to compensate for discrimination that unfairly prevents whites and men from being hired and or promoted. Very qualified applicants can be denied or overlooked for employment or college entrance because of their race.
Advocates of affirmative respond that discrimination is by, by definition, unfair treatment of people because they belong to a certain group. Therefore, effective remedies must aid groups that have suffered from discrimination.
As with most management objectives, a systemic system plan based on sound organizational analysis and problem identification is crucial to the accomplishment of affirmative objectives. For this reason, the council urges all State and local governments to develop and implement results oriented affirmative action plans which deal with the problems identified.
In the public sector of our society this means that all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex or national origin shall have equal access to the positions in the public service limited only by their ability to do the job.
Public sector of affirmative actions should be achievement of genuine equal employment opportunity for all qualified persons. Selections under such plans should be based upon the ability of the applicant (s) to do the work. Such plans should not require the selection of the unqualified, or the unneeded, nor they should they require the selection of persons on the basis of race, color, sex, religion or national origin.
Executive Order 11246 has the following regulations and requirements for the private sector. The executive order requires covered contractors and subcontractors to refrain from discrimination and to engage in affirmative measurements to ensure that applicants and employees receive equal opportunity regardless of race, color, religion sex, and or national origin.
The order requires all covered contractors and subcontractors to include a specific equal opportunity clause in each of their nonexempt contracts and subcontracts.
The Department of Labor’s regulations prohibit discrimination in such employment practices as requirement, rates of pay, upgrading, layoff, promotion, and selection for training. Employers may not make dictions based on race color, religion, sex, or national origin in requirement or advertising efforts, employment opportunities, wages, hours, job classifications, seniority, retirement ages.
These requirements of affirmative action apply to employers who contract with the federal government to provide goods and services of $50.000 or more and employee at least 15 or more employees.
The Office of Contract Compliance Program mandates that a formal written Affirmative
Action Plan is required of employers who employee 50 or more employees and any of the following: Federal contracts or subcontracts in excess of $50.000 of more, government bills of lading which can be expected to total $50.000 or more, serves as a depository of government funds in any amount and is a financial institution which is an issuing and paying agent for the
U. S. savings bonds and savings notes in any amount.
Affirmative Action plans should have a work force analysis, two factor analysis, unitization analysis, adverse impact analysis, written narrative, and compensation analysis.
In January of 2005 The University of Connecticut Health Center was found by the Commission of Human Rights and Opportunities to have an Affirmative Action Plan that did not demonstrate good faith efforts to achieve affirmative action hiring goals. The University of Connecticut Health Care Center with the human resource department implemented these procedures: All applicants and search candidates must complete a UCHC application form which requests voluntary provisions of demographic information required by the CHRO. No hiring offer will be made absent a completed UCHC application form. Human Resource may designate goal candidate who must be interviewed as part of the selection process. The hiring department will be required to provide basic race and sex demographic information on each candidate that is interviewed. The hiring department must provide written selection justification with comparative information of the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience. Hiring offers may be delayed by Human Resources if written selection justification is not provided and or incomplete.
Every new and existing employee has to complete the mandatory diversity training program.
In conclusion, Affirmative Action was created as a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In moral issues in business affirmative action is described as a program to take race, sex, color, gender and national origin into account as a part of an effort to correct imbalances in employment that exists as a result of past discrimination. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed the Executive Order 10925, which made all federal contractors take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed without regard to race color, sex, or national origin. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 followed, prohibiting all forms of discrimination based on color, sex, religion or national origin. The Civil Rights Act came at the height of the civil rights movement and it forced the diversification of business and schools that would otherwise support segregation. Today, business and continuing education institutions are required to have an affirmative action programs to ensure they have people of all races and both genders reppesented in their population.

References

Affirmative Action. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from Small business Encyclopedia:
http;//www.answers.com/topic/affirmitive-action
Affirmative Action Plans. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from California Employers Association:
http;//www.employers.org/services/Affirmative Action Plan.html
Finkelman, P. Affirmative Action . Retrieved October 19, 2008, from Encarta:
http;//www.encarta.msn.com/text_761580666___0/Affirmative_Action.html
Message Archive. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from University of Connecticut Health Center:
http://www/uchc.edu/vicepresident/message/affirnative_action.html
Policy Statement on Affermintive Action. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from U.S. Department of