SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATIVE MANUAL

PURPOSE:

To provide departments with definitions of terms commonly used with the evaluation of EEO/Affirmative Action program elements.

LEGAL BASIS:

See Personnel Administrative Manual Section II.18. EEO/Affirmative Action Legal References.


POLICY:

1. EEO AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DEFINED 
   
   Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Affirmative Action (AA) are two different principles. Because the terms EEO and AA are often used interchangeably and their meanings misunderstood, their definitions are included here. A more complete listing of terms used in the EEO/AA Program can be found in the Personnel Administrative Manual
   
   EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY - A condition that exists when all persons are treated equally and are not subject to any type of discrimination that has been declared unlawful by Federal and State laws, County Policy, and in some cases by subsequent court decisions. Basically, EEO means the right of all persons to apply and be evaluated for job opportunities without regard for their race, color, sex national origin, religion, age, and physical or mental disabilities. In other words, EEO is about fair access. EEO guarantees everyone the right to be considered on the basis of his or her ability to do the job.
   
   AFFIRMATIVE ACTION - The principle of AA requires that, your employer, the County make special efforts to recruit, employ and advance qualified women, minorities, and disabled individuals to overcome the effects of past and present discrimination. AA strives to include disadvantaged persons at all levels of the County's workforce. When they achieve statistical parity with the civilian workforce, such special efforts will continue as a matter of public policy. The County will have achieved its objective of employing a diverse workforce and will continue its AA efforts to have a workforce that reflects the community. In order to implement AA, race, sex, national origin, and disabling conditions ARE taken into consideration as necessary to meet the goals established by the Board of Supervisors. Affirmative actions include changing the employment system as well as making additional efforts to encourage and support the employment and advancement of under-represented and disadvantaged persons.
   
   
   
2. EEO/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TERMINOLOGY - DEFINITION OF TERMS
   
   AFFECTED CLASS
   
   An affected class is a group of people what a common characteristic (race, sex, religion, national origin) who have been denied Equal Employment Opportunities in violation of Title VI or VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This denial may occur at any step in the employment process: recruitment, placement, promotion, compensation, shift assignment, and firing.
   
   AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
   
   The principle of AA requires that, your employer, the County make special efforts to recruit, employ and advance qualified women, minorities, and disabled individuals to overcome the effects of past and present discrimination. AA strives to include members of these groups at all levels of the County's workforce. When women and minorities achieve statistical parity with the civilian workforce, such special efforts will no longer be pursued because the County will have achieved its objective of employing a diverse workforce. In AA race, sex, national origin, and disabling conditions ARE taken into account. Affirmative actions include changing the employment system as well as making additional efforts to encourage and support the employment and advancement of under-represented group members.
   
   AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PLAN
   
   The Affirmative Action Plan is a statement of goals, timetables, and programs indicating how the employer plans to move from his current status to parity. The Plan is required of government contractors under regulations of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP).
   
   The Plan requires employers to compare the internal distribution of minority and female employees with their incidence in the external labor market, thereby, determining whether or not the employer is at parity.
   
   The extent to which governmental bodies (state, local, county, municipal governments, and their associated organizations) are required to file Affirmative Action Plans is not clear. However, It is generally considered good practice to do so.
   
   COMPLIANCE AGENCIES
   
   Compliance Agencies are organizations established under the OFCCP as internal sub-units of major government departments or agencies; such as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the Department of Labor. They are charged with the administration of Executive Order 11246 (also Revised Orders 4 and 14) as well as with the collection and analysis of EEO Reports and Affirmative Action Plans.
   
   Their powers of enforcement include the ability to deny government business to contractors found in violation of Title VII and to deny governmental bodies Federal funds.
   
   DISPARATE EFFECT
   
   Disparate effect is any treatment that is quantitatively different for a protected class than for other employees at the same level, anywhere in the same organization. Disparate effect is generally a result of the application of criteria or standards that screen out one class of persons more than another.
   
   In itself, disparate effect may not constitute a violation of Title VII, but it usually indicates that close examination of the screening process, criteria, and neutrality of application is needed. An employer may be able to justify the disparate effect of hiring criteria by showing job relatedness and neutrality of application, but the employer always bears the burden of proof.
   
   EEO
   
   A condition that exists when all persons are treated equally and are not subject to any type of discrimination that has been declared unlawful by Federal and State laws, County Policy, and in some cases by subsequent court decisions. Basically, EEO means the right of all persons to apply and be evaluated for job opportunities without regard for their race, color, sex national origin, religion, age, and physical or mental disabilities. In other words, EEO is about fair access. EEO guarantees everyone the right to be considered on the basis of his or her ability to do the job.
   
   EEOC
   
   The EEOC is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In general, its purpose is to seek out and prosecute violators of the Act.
   
   EMPLOYMENT PROCESS
   
   Under Title VII, the employment process includes recruitment, applicant flow , hiring, job placement, compensation, promotion, transfer, termination, shift assignments, geographical and departmental assignments, etc.
   
   EXTERNAL LABOR MARKET
   
   The geographic area from which an employer may reasonably be expected to recruit new workers is the external labor market. In a compliance sense, this total labor market has sub-markets within it, comprising persons with the requisite skills, experience, etc., to fill given jobs.
   
   
   INCIDENCE RATE
   
   The Incidence Rate is a measurement of the degree to which a protected class is involved in any step of the employment process. If there are 80 black males, 20 of whom are promoted, the Incidence Rate is 25 percent.
   
   As a measure of compliance, the Incidence Rate is compared with the degree the protected class is represented in the external labor market.
   
   MAKE WHOLE
   
   To make a person whole means to provide restitution so that the person's earnings are the same as those against whom there was no discrimination. Being Made Whole in the private sector can mean retroactive pay or some other costly remedy. In the public sector, the status of back pay is unclear. 
   
   OFCCP
   
   The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP) reports to the Department of Labor and is essentially administrative in nature. It issues administrative orders, such as Revised Orders 4 and 14, and guidelines. 
   
   PARITY
   
   
   1. Parity is the state of being equal. In an EEO context, having parity indicates that the percentage of a protected class employed by a company is identical with the percentage to which that class is represented in the labor pool available to that company.
      
      
   2. Comparative parity is a measure of occupational parity made against all other governmental units in the same or similar areas.
      
      
   3. Occupational parity is a measure that compares the internal (vertical) distribution of the protected classes with the known, external availability of members of those classes who have the requisite skills for each occupational level. To assist in these measures, the OFCCP has established eight occupational categories, roughly hierarchical in nature. Each category may include several pay grades.
      
      
   4. Population parity is a measure that, regardless of job title or pay, compare the employment of protected classes within an organization with the incidence of those classes in the external labor market.
      
   
   PARTICIPATION RATE
   
   This is the percentage, by protected class, of all individuals in an organization who are involved in an employment action. For example, if 200 employees are promoted of whom 20 are black males, their participation rate is 10 percent.
   
   PRESENT EFFECTS OF PAST PATTERNS OF DISCRIMINATION
   
   The EEOC and the Courts have consistently held that employers are liable for correcting situations in which employees continue to suffer the "Present Effects of Past Patterns of Discrimination." This means that an employee or group of employees who, in the eyes of the Commission and/or Courts should have been promoted three years ago (whether or not a complaint has been lodged), is still entitled to be "Made Whole".
   
   PROTECTED CLASSES
   
   Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 proscribes discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin. The generic term "Protected Class", is used to describe those groups who, in the eyes of Congress and the Courts, have borne the brunt of discriminatory employment practices in the past -- namely, women and minorities. However, all persons, regardless of race, religion, sex, etc., are protected by Title VII in the sense that they may not be denied Equal Employment Opportunities.
   
   RELEVANT LABOR POOL
   
   The relevant labor pool is the total number of incumbent employees who are in position for a specific promotion, or all candidates who could conceivably be considered for a promotion.
   
   SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION
   
   Equal employment Opportunity may be denied through the inevitable consequence of some established business practice, persisting over a period of time, rather than of a specific overt act against an aggrieved party. Such a result of the "system" is Systemic Discrimination and has been at the root of most Title VII settlements to date.
   
   Usually unintentional, the disparate effect produced by Systemic Discrimination constitutes a prime area of vulnerability for most employers in either the private or public sector.
   
   UTILIZATION ANALYSIS
   
   An audit of the current distribution, compensation, and movements of an organization's employees is a Utilization Analysis. The Analysis is made by job grade, title, and lines of progression for all sex and race groups, across all units of the organization, for each step of the employment process.
   
   A Utilization Analysis established a legal and accurate basis for realistic goal settings. Current distribution must be analyzed in terms of relevant external labor markets, and such comparisons must be made at each step of the employment process.