Staff Reports - East Bay Municipal Utility District

Section 3 – Affirmative Action Requirements
Executive Order 11246
Soon after Title VII was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon
Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 on September 24, 1965. This order requires
employers who enter into contracts with the federal government or into subcontracts with
federal contractors to take affirmative action efforts to hire and promote minorities and
women. The basic concept of affirmative action soon spread through other areas of
federal agency procurement or program administration, including grant or funding
programs that extend these obligations to state and local government projects. The Office
of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) was created in 1966 to administer
the executive order. Together with the EEOC, the OFCCP has promulgated regulations,
establishing the affirmative action requirements with which the District must comply in
order to maintain its eligibility to receive federal funding.
OFCCP Requirements for Affirmative Action
Under the federal regulations, an affirmative action program is a management tool
designed to ensure equal employment opportunity. A central premise underlying
affirmative action is that, absent discrimination, over time the District’s workforce,
generally, will reflect the gender, racial and ethnic profile of the labor pools from which
the District recruits and selects. Affirmative action programs contain a diagnostic
component that includes a number of quantitative analyses designed to evaluate the
composition of the workforce of the District and compare it to the composition of its
relevant labor pools. Affirmative action programs also include action-oriented programs,
under the federal regulations. If women and minorities are not being employed at a rate to
be expected given their availability in the relevant labor pool, the OFCCP requires the
District’s affirmative action plan to include specific practical steps designed to address
this underutilization.
Most importantly, the OFCCP regulations require the District to estimate the number of
qualified minorities or women available for employment in a given job group as a
benchmark against which the demographic composition of the District’s workforce can
be compared. When the percentage of minorities or women employed in a particular job
group is less than would be reasonably expected given their availability percentage in that
particular group, the federal regulations require the District to establish a placement goal
for that particular job group, and to make good faith efforts toward reaching that goal.
The OFCCP regulations also require the District to advise top management of program
effectiveness and submit recommendations to improve unsatisfactory performance. As
stated earlier, the District’s affirmative action efforts in the past have made great strides
towards achieving equal employment opportunity. However, EBMUD has many
opportunities to improve, as this Plan reflects, and there are a number of good faith
efforts that the District can take to remove barriers when they are identified,
communicate employment opportunities, and produce measurable results to realize the
goals and objectives established through this Plan.
Affirmative Action & Equal Employment Opportunity
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