Background:
In 1964, Congress passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids
discrimination in Employment on the basis of race, color, national origin,
religion, or sex. This Act applies to all public and private sector employers.
Additional legislation has built upon this foundation of Equal Opportunity,
such as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act passed in 1967, which protects
workers age 40 and over from age-related employment discrimination. The Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect in 1992, guaranteeing people
with disabilities access to employment, public accommodations, transportation,
public services and telecommunications. The ADA provides federal civil rights
protection to people with disabilities and applies to public and private
employers, including local government.
By executive order in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson required all federal
contractors to design specific plans of action to actively seek and employ
women and ethnic minority groups to prevent continued under-representation
of people from these groups across all occupations. This is known as Affirmative
Action.
Although it was not required, the City of Ashland began formally and voluntarily
complying with Affirmative Action in 1989 through adopting an Equal Employment
Opportunity Policy and Affirmative Action Plan (Resolution 89-35). The City
of Ashland has a rich history of encouraging diversity as evidenced by its
continued support of Affirmative Action since it's inception in 1989. The
City created a Domestic Partner Registry in 1999, which established procedures
for unmarried couples in a committed relationship that share a life and home,
to document their relationship in the public record. The City has adopted
a fair housing policy that "assures equal opportunity to all persons to live
in decent housing facilities regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, national origin or familial status and, to that end, to prohibit
discrimination in housing by any persons.
The resolution Staff is proposing will build on that commitment to diversity
enhancement by better understanding what groups are under-represented in
our workforce and guide our employment actions toward positive change. All
of the principles in our existing EEO/AA Policy have been carried forward
in the new policy with regard to communications. The proposed revision is
a user-friendly document that provides new and existing employees with a
better understanding of our organizational culture and core values. The roles
and responsibilities of employees and management are expanded and clarified,
and Personnel Practices are refined. The most critical policy change is in
workforce analysis. The revised policy goes beyond just looking at our workforce
composition annually, to allow management an opportunity to benchmark and
implement recruitment strategies through identification of job classifications
that are underrepresented by women and minorities.
The new policy will designate an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative
Action Officer who will be responsible for ensuring that all employment decisions
and actions for the City are in compliance and that all employees are provided
with a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. The policy will
be followed up with a training component that will educate employees at all
levels of the organization on the importance of diversity development and
non-discrimination in the workplace. Reports will be furnished annually to
the City Council outlining progress toward the intended goal of employing
women and minorities in all job categories in proportion to their availability
in the labor market. There are not financial impacts associated with this
policy as money has been allocated through the budget process for employee
training and consultant assistance in evaluating our workforce and outlining
areas of underutilization. |
