New FCC Equal Employment Rules Add Procedures, Paperwork

The FCC's new equal employment opportunity rules went into effect April 17,

2000, and are applicable to broadcast stations and cable systems. The new EEO

rules require extensive recruitment procedures, record keeping and reporting,

including new FCC forms and reports.

The new EEO rules have moved away from previous requirements, which resembled

a ìquotaî system with comparisons of station employment to employment of

minorities and women in the local market. The rules now apply to all stations

with five or more employees, whether stand alone or commonly owned with shared

staff. Each station's equal employment program must be designed to ìensure

equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in every aspect of station employment

policy and practice.î The elements include defining management responsibility

for carrying out the program; informing employees and employee organizations of

the station's EEO policies and program; communicating the station's policies

and programs to recruitment sources; having a continuing internal program to

eliminate all unlawful forms of prejudice or discrimination from personnel

policies and practices and working conditions; and conducting continuing

internal reviews to ensure that the station's job structure and employment

practices ensure full equality of opportunity.

Stations must follow specific recruitment procedures for all full-time job

openings, except in the case of internal promotion, temporary positions or ìexceptional

circumstances.î A position is considered ìfull-timeî if the employee is

expected to work 30 or more hours a week.

By June 1, 2000, all stations with five or more employees should have filed

an ìelectionî with the FCC, using a new form for that purpose, designating

whether they will follow ìOption Aî or ìOption Bî recruitment

procedures. Option A stations must follow a set of explicit EEO recruitment

practices very specifically set out in the FCC's rules. Option B stations must

design and follow their own set of recruitment practices and also are subject to

somewhat different record-keeping and reporting requirements than those that

apply to Option A stations. The most important difference in the record-keeping

and reporting requirements between the two groups is that Option B stations must

keep records and include in their periodic EEO reports information concerning

the gender and race and/or ethnicity of all job applicants. Option A stations

have substantial record keeping and reporting...