Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A)
Administrative
review
(1)
In
every year during any part of which a program is subject to affirmative action
requirements, the sponsor is to review the employment and personnel processes
of the program and its employer(s), so as to:
(a)
Ensure that the
program is free from discrimination - i.e., that the practices, policies, and
employment decisions of the sponsor and (where separate) the participating
employer(s), do not create in any aspect of the program a systemic bias based
on race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and gender
identity), sexual orientation, age over forty years, genetic information,
Hispanic ethnicity, or disability;
(b)
Identify any ways
in which such practices, policies, or decisions create barriers to equal
opportunity for ethnic or racial minorities, women, or persons with
disabilities; and
(c)
Identify any apprenticeship program modification that
is needed to ensure fulfillment of all equal employment opportunity (EEO) and
affirmative action obligations under rules in division 5101:11 of the
Administrative Code.
(2)
The review is to
be careful, thorough, and systematic, and include all aspects of the
apprenticeship program and of each occupation course, including but not limited
to the qualifications for apprenticeship, application and selection procedures,
wages, outreach and recruitment activities, advancement opportunities,
promotions, work assignments, job performance, rotations among all work
processes of the occupation, disciplinary actions, handling of requests for
reasonable accommodations, the program's accessibility to individuals with
disabilities (including to the use of information and communication
technology), and the employment and personnel policies of the program and its
employer(s).
(3)
In its written affirmative action plan (AAP), the
sponsor is to include a description of its review methods and of any
apprenticeship program modifications that the review identifies as necessary
for compliance with the rules in division 5101:11 of the Administrative
Code.
(B)
Analysis to determine if deficiencies exist. In each
year during any part of which a program is subject to affirmative action
requirements, the sponsor will work with the council office to conduct a
deficiency analysis. This procedure will measure the extent to which the
registered apprentices in each major occupation sector in the program reflect
the demographics of the persons available for apprenticeship in that sector of
the recruitment area as a whole. The analysis methods are to be set forth in
detail as part of the affirmative action plan.
(1)
The purposes of
the analysis are:
(a)
To ascertain the need and scale of utilization goals
concerning female, minority, and Hispanic individuals;
(b)
To identify
possible barriers to apprenticeship and equal opportunity for those groups and
for people with disabilities; and
(c)
To determine the
need, type, and scale of special outreach, recruitment, and retention
activities targeted toward all four groups.
(2)
The deficiency
analysis will include two components:
(a)
Utilization
analysis. The analysis for each program will measure the percentages of the
apprentice workforce in each major occupation sector which comprise female,
minority, Hispanic, and disabled individuals;
(b)
Availability
analysis. The analysis will assess the percentages of the recruitment area's
population available for apprenticeship in each relevant occupation sector,
that comprise female, minority, and Hispanic individuals. The result will be an
availability figure for each of the three demographic groups, that serves as a
benchmark for enrolling members of that group in that sector of the program. A
benchmark for enrolling people with disabilities, exists in a uniform
nationwide figure of seven per cent, established by the U.S. department of
labor.
(C)
Identifying
causes. Where a deficiency analysis finds underutilization of female, minority,
Hispanic, and/or disabled individuals in apprenticeship, the sponsor will
examine all aspects of its program to identify any barriers or impediments that
might account for a lack of equal opportunity for those groups. The standards
and the AAP are to include a thorough and up-to-date description of the methods
used in this examination, and of the latest results.
(D)
Data resources.
The Ohio department of job and family services will make available to program
sponsors data and information on Hispanic, racial minority, and female labor
force characteristics for each standard metropolitan statistical area, and for
other special areas as appropriate.
(E)
Goals.
(1)
Terms.
(a)
"Analysis" as
used in this paragraph means the deficiency analysis described in paragraph (B)
of this rule.
(b)
"Underutilization" or "deficiency" as used in this rule
refers to the situation where a program's apprentice workforce in a given
occupational sector includes fewer minority, female, Hispanic, and/or disabled
individuals, than would reasonably be expected in view of the availability
analysis described in paragraph (B) of this rule.
(2)
Goal
requirement.
(a)
A sponsor which determines, on the basis of the analysis
described in paragraph (B) of this rule, that the program underutilizes
minority, female, and/or Hispanic workers in any occupation sector, will
include in its affirmative action plan percentage goal for the selection of
applicants from each under-utilized group, into that sector of the
apprenticeship program; and, where the selection procedure includes an
eligibility pool for one or more occupation sector(s), the plan will also
include the corresponding percentage goal(s) for the admission of applicants
into the pertinent eligibility pool(s).
(b)
Where, on the
basis of the analysis, it is determined that a program has no deficiencies, the
sponsor need not establish selection goals. However, in that case, the
affirmative action plan will include an explanation of why it contains no
goals.
(c)
A sponsor's determination under paragraph (B) of this
rule that a utilization goal is required, constitutes neither a finding nor an
admission of discrimination. Utilization goals serve as objectives or targets
reasonably attainable by means of applying every good faith effort to make all
aspects of the entire affirmative action plan work. Utilization goals are used
to measure the effectiveness of the sponsor's outreach, recruitment, and
retention efforts.
(3)
Establishment of
goals.
(a)
In
establishing its goal(s), the sponsor should consider the results which could
be reasonably expected from its good faith efforts to make all aspects of its
affirmative action plan work.
(b)
Where, pursuant
to paragraph (E)(2) of this rule, a sponsor is required to establish a
utilization goal for a particular group in its apprenticeship program, the
sponsor will establish a percentage goal at least equal to the availability
figure derived under paragraph (D)(2) of this rule.
(4)
Review of
goals.
(a)
Sponsors are to review their goal levels annually, and
adjust them as warranted by the results of periodic deficiency analyses. Goals
are not to be reduced from one analysis to the next, except as warranted by a
decline in the availability figure for the recruitment area..
(b)
Where the council
office determines that the sponsor has deficiencies within the meaning of this
rule, and that its affirmative action plan contains inadequate goals or none at
all, the council office will establish goals for the relevant occupation
sector(s), as it deems appropriate to address the requirements of paragraph (G)
of this rule. The sponsor is to make good faith efforts to attain these
goals.
Replaces: Part of 5101:11-5-02