Affirmative Action in the Public and Private Sectors essay help writer academic writing website

By Definition affirmative action is the intentional inclusion of women and minorities in the workplace based on a finding of their previous exclusion. (Bennett-Alexander, & Hartman, 2007, p. 2). This means that based on a trending exclusion of minorities a workplace can be in violation of Title VII Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Yet, not all employers are subject to Affirmative Action, and not all minorities are to be given jobs that they do not qualify for. Affirmative Action applies to employers that have 50 or ore employees who have contracts with the federal government of goods or services worth $50,000 or more.

These employers are subject to affirmative action under executive order 11246, “which makes federal contractors subject to not discriminate in the hiring, termination, promotion, pay and all other employment terms on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin”. Pg 9 para. 3 Certain contracts subject to Order 11246 require that under representation of minorities be remedied in order to continue contract with the government. In addition contractors with contracts of $10,000 or more, and subcontractors must also comply with the executive order provisions.

For employers that fall on the 50 employee and $50,000 or more contracts, they must develop a written agreement called “ Affirmative Action Plan”, which stipulates the contractors goals and steps of achieving the inclusion of women and minorities in the workplace. The plan code was created with the intention to help employers manage their responsibilities under the executive order and for them to embrace it as a form to conduct business. Affirmative action plans outline how the employer plans to ensure an anti-discrimination workplace, which can include a number of ways of how to do it.

With the changes to the regulations of affirmative action plans in 2000, it made plans more balanced, by allowing plans “contain a diagnostic component to include an analysis that evaluates the composition of the workforce and compare it to the composition of the relevant labor pools. ” (Bennett-Alexander, & Hartman, 2007 , Pg 11 para 2). This means that the plans will be developed to include a study of their labor pool and their current workforce to understand and determine if there are underutilization of minorities within their geographic population.

In addition the plans are also designed to include internal auditing and reporting systems to measure any progress toward achieving a balance in workforce, as described in their plan of action. Also the plans contain the procedures and actions the employers will take to ensure that qualified applicants and employees receive fair treatment in employment terms. The plans must show quantities and qualitative aspects, meaning the plan must show analysis of the workplace as it is, to identify if the minorities that exist are either unrepresentative in management of underutilized this is called an “ organizational profile”.

Within this profile there is an analysis of the availability of the minority population to work demographically, and meet the qualifications for they jobs. The availability is divided into two studies, one is given the geographic area what is the percentage of the population that represents minorities, and the second one is in comparison to the percentage of the employers current minority workforce percentage, how many are qualified for the open jobs, or can be moved to other positions in order to leave vacancies for other qualified minority employees.

This analysis will give a percentage which will be the goal for the plan, referred as “ placement goal” (Bennett-Alexander, & Hartman, 2007 , Pg14), this will be a drive of the uniform hiring procedures and promotions action steps of the plan. Affirmative Action Plans in Private and Public Sector Affirmative Action Plans in the private sector can vary depending of the status of the employer. If the employer is a government contractor or that meets the requirements or government ”public sector” employer than it must comply.

On the other hand, voluntary affirmative action can be adopted by any employer even if does not have to comply with executive order 11246, or it has not been sued for discrimination. Voluntary affirmative action plan is an attempt of employers to protect the organization from discrimination liability if they have found that in their workforce there is under representation or underutilization of women or minorities. In order to voluntarily comply with the provisions there employer must follow strict rules to prevent reverse discrimination when the plan is implemented.

Employers who voluntarily decode to adopt and implement an affirmative action plan must be able to define and prove the reasons for it, meaning that it should be able to defend why and how the employer came to the finding of under representation or underutilization of women and minorities, what the intend of the plan is and what will be in place to achieve it. In most cases it is placed to promote cultural diversity, ensuring that through the plan it will give an equal opportunity to current and prospective employees and remedy any past practices, unintentional discriminatory treatment for protected classes.