Staff Reports - East Bay Municipal Utility District

Adopt the 2013 Affirmative Action Plan and Goals
March 12, 2013
Page 2
The 2013 AA Plan complies with these requirements and provides useful information on the effectiveness
of EBMUD's good faith efforts towards removing impediments to equal employment opportunity during
the past year.
Over the last three years, during the hiring freeze, the District has made little progress in achieving a
workforce representative of the available labor force. In general, this is due to the District's efforts to get
"boots on the ground" in maintenance and operations jobs. It has been challenging to recruit qualified
diverse candidates for journey-level jobs such as Maintenance Specialist, Truck Driver II, Machinist,
Electrical Technician, and Water Treatment Operator. Prior to the hiring freeze, these hires were balanced
with administrative and professional job hires for which there are more qualified diverse candidates.
The significant workforce underutilization rates for 2013 have either stayed the same, or increased from
the 2012 rates for almost all AA groups. This is because most 2012 hires were not AA goal achieving. The
District's 2012 Affirmative Action Goal achievement rate was 18%. The District's AA Goal achievement
rates for the last three years have been much lower than the average rate (30%) achieved in the last twelve
years. Since recruitment of qualified and diverse candidates is an essential strategy to reduce
underrepresentation and to make progress towards workforce parity, the 2013 AA Plan outlines actions
the District can take to generate a qualified diverse pool of candidates for future hires.
The 2013 Action Plan focuses on workforce areas where the District anticipates filling positions key to
operations, maintenance, infrastructure, and customer services. The District's community partnership
efforts will focus on developing qualified diverse candidates for trainee and entry-level job opportunities
such as Plumber I, Machining & Maintenance Worker II, and Wastewater Plant Operator Trainee. The
District has workforce underutilization in all of these jobs.
This Plan also identifies specific good faith actions that the District will implement in 2013 including
outreach to local veteran organizations, pre-apprenticeship programs, and local high schools and colleges.
The District will also partner with local colleges to provide internships to increase the employment
readiness of potential job candidates.
FISCAL IMPACT
The costs for implementing the 2013 Affirmative Action Plan are included in the FY13 District budget.
ALTERNATIVE
Do not adopt the 2013 Affirmative Action Plan. This is not recommended because it would not be
consistent with federal regulations.
Attachment: 2013 Affirmative Action Plan