Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 3, March 20, 2024
A.
Adoption of Affirmative Action Plans. A sponsor's commitment to equal
opportunity in recruitment, selection, employment, and training of apprentices
shall include the adoption of a written affirmative action plan.
B. Definition of Affirmative Action.
Affirmative action is not merely passive nondiscrimination. It includes
procedures, methods, and programs for the identification, positive recruitment,
training, and motivation of present and potential minority and female (minority
and nonminority) apprentices, including the establishment of goals and
timetables. It is action which will equalize opportunity in apprenticeship so
as to allow full utilization of the work potential of minorities and women. The
overall result to be sought is equal opportunity in apprenticeship for all
individuals participating in or seeking entrance to the nation's labor
force.
C. Outreach and Positive
Recruitment. An acceptable affirmative action plan must also include adequate
provision for outreach and positive recruitment that would reasonably be
expected to increase minority and female participation in apprenticeship by
expanding the opportunity of minorities and women to become eligible for
apprentice selection. The affirmative action plan shall set forth the specific
steps the sponsor intends to take in the areas listed below in order to achieve
these objectives.
1. Disseminate Information
Concerning the Nature of Apprenticeship, Availability of Apprenticeship
Opportunities, Source of Apprenticeship Applicants, and the Equal Opportunity
Policy of the Sponsor. For programs accepting applications only at specified
intervals, such information shall be disseminated at least 30 days in advance
of the earliest date for applications at each interval. For programs
customarily receiving applications throughout the year, such information shall
be regularly disseminated but not less than semi-annually. Such information
shall be given to the apprenticeship division, U.S. Department of Labor, local
schools, employment service offices, women's centers, outreach programs, and
community organizations which can effectively reach minority groups and women,
and published in newspapers which are circulated in the minority community and
among women, as well as the general areas in which the program sponsor
operates.
2. Participate in annual
workshops conducted by employment service agencies for the purpose of
familiarizing school, employment service, and other appropriate personnel with
the apprenticeship system and current opportunities therein.
3. Cooperate with local school boards and
vocational education systems to develop programs for preparing students to meet
the standards and criteria required to qualify for entry into apprenticeship
programs.
4. Provide internal
communication of the sponsor's equal opportunity policy in such a manner as to
foster understanding, acceptance, and support among the sponsor's various
officers, supervisors, employees, and members, and to encourage such persons to
take necessary action to aid the sponsor in meeting its obligations under this
plan.
5. Engage in programs such as
Outreach for the positive recruitment and preparation of potential applicants
for apprenticeship; where appropriate and feasible, such programs shall provide
for pre-testing experience and training. If no such programs are in existence,
the sponsor shall seek to initiate these programs, or, when available, to
obtain financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Labor. In initiating
and conducting these programs, the sponsor may be required to work with other
sponsors and appropriate community organizations. The sponsor also shall
initiate programs to prepare women to enter traditionally male
programs.
6. Encourage
establishment and use of programs of preapprenticeship, preparatory trade
training, or other programs designed to afford related work experience or to
prepare candidates for apprenticeship. A sponsor shall make appropriate
provision in its affirmative action plan to assure that those who complete such
programs are afforded full and equal opportunity for admission into the
apprenticeship program.
7. Utilize
journeypersons to assist in the implementation of the sponsor's affirmative
action program.
8. Grant advanced
standing or credit on the basis of previously acquired experience, training,
skills, or aptitude for all applicants equally.
9. Admit to apprenticeship persons whose age
exceeds the maximum age for admission to the program, where such action assists
the sponsor in achieving its affirmative action obligations.
10. Take any other action necessary to ensure
that recruitment, selection, employment, and training of apprentices during
apprenticeship, shall be without discrimination because of race, color,
religion, national origin, or sex, such as general publication of
apprenticeship opportunities and advantages in advertisements, industry
reports, articles, etc.; use of present minority and female apprentices and
journeypersons as recruiters; career counseling; periodic auditing of
affirmative action programs and activities; and development of reasonable
procedures between sponsors and employers of apprentices to ensure that equal
employment opportunity is being granted including reporting systems, on-site
reviews, briefing sessions, etc.
D. Goals and Timetables
1. A sponsor adopting a selection method
under §511. B.2 or 3 of this plan which determines on the basis of the analysis
described in §509. E that it has deficiencies in terms of underutilization of
minorities and/or women (minority and nonminority) in craft or crafts
represented by the program shall include in its affirmative action plan
percentage goals and timetables for admission of minorities and/or female
(minority and non-minority) applicants into the eligibility pool.
2. A sponsor adopting a selection method
under §511. B.4 or 5 which determines on the basis of the analysis described in
Subsection E of this Section that it has deficiencies in terms of
underutilization of minorities and/or women in craft or crafts represented by
the program shall include in its affirmative action plan percentage goals and
timetables for selecting minority and female (minority and nonminority)
applicants for the apprenticeship program.
E. Underutilization
1. As used in this Paragraph,
underutilization refers to a condition in which fewer minorities and/or women
(minority and nonminority) are employed in the particular craft or crafts
represented by the program than would be reasonably expected in view of an
analysis of specific factors in §509. F.1-5 of this plan.
2. When, on the basis of the analysis, the
sponsor determines that it has no deficiencies, no goals and timetables need be
established. However, where no goals and timetables are established, the
affirmative action plan shall include a detailed explanation why no goals and
timetables have been established.
3. When the sponsor fails to submit goals and
timetables as part of its affirmative action plan or submits goals and
timetables which are unacceptable, and the council determines that the sponsor
has deficiencies in terms of underutilization of minorities or women (minority
and nonminority) within the meaning of this Paragraph, the council shall
establish goals and timetables applicable to the sponsor for admission of
minority and female (minority and non-minority) applicants into the eligibility
pool or selection of apprentices, as appropriate. The sponsor shall make good
faith efforts to attain these goals and timetables in accordance with all
requirements of this Paragraph.
F. Analysis to Determine if Deficiencies
Exist. This analysis shall be set forth in writing of the affirmative action
plan. The sponsor's determination as to whether goals and timetables shall be
established, shall be based on an analysis of at least the following factors:
1. the size of the working age minority and
female (minority and nonminority) population in the program sponsor's labor
market area;
2. the size of the
minority and female (minority and non-minority) labor force in the program
sponsor's labor market area;
3. the
percentage of minority and female (minority and non-minority) participation as
apprentices in the particular craft as compared with the percentage of
minorities and women in the labor force in the program sponsor's labor market
area;
4. the percentage of minority
and female (minority and non-minority) participation as journeypersons employed
by the employer or employers participating in the program as compared with the
percentage of minorities and women (minority and non-minority) in the sponsor's
labor market area and the extent to which the sponsor should be expected to
correct any deficiencies through the achievement of goals and timetables for
the selection of apprentices; and
5. the general availability of minorities and
women (minority and non-minority) with present or potential capacity for
apprenticeship in the program sponsor's labor market area.
G. Establishment and Attainment of Goals and
Timetables. Goals and timetables shall be established on the basis of the
sponsor's analyses of its underutilization of minorities and women and its
entire affirmative action program. A single goal for minorities and a separate
single goal for women is acceptable unless a particular group is employed in a
substantially disparate manner in which case separate goals shall be
established for such group. Such separate goals would be required, for example,
if a specific minority group of women were underutilized even though the
sponsor had achieved its standards for women generally. In establishing goals,
the sponsor should consider results which could be reasonably expected from its
good-faith efforts to make its overall affirmative action program work.
Compliance with these requirements shall be determined by whether the sponsor
has met its goals within its timetables, or failing that, whether it has made
good faith efforts to meet its goals and timetables. Its good faith efforts
shall be judged by whether it is following its affirmative action program and
attempting to make it work, including evaluation and changes in its program
where necessary to obtain maximum effectiveness toward attainment of its goals.
However, in order to deal fairly with program sponsors, and with women who are
entitled to protection under goals and timetables requirements, during the
first 12 months after the effective date of these regulations, the program
sponsor would generally be expected to set a goal for women for the entering
year class at a rate which is not less than 50 percent of the proportion women
represent in the workforce in the program sponsor's labor market area, and set
a percentage goal for women in each class beyond the entering class which is
not less than the participation rate of women currently in the preceding class.
At the end of the first 12 months after the effective date of these
regulations, sponsors are expected to make appropriate adjustments in goal
levels. See §515. B.
H. Data and
Information. The director of apprenticeship shall make available to program
sponsors data and information on minority and female (minority and nonminority)
labor force characteristics for each standard metropolitan statistical area,
and for other special areas as appropriate.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
Promulgated in accordance with R.S.
23:381-391.
