On August 26, 1999 a delegation from the Council of Federal Equal Employment Opportunity and Civil Rights Executives and I met with you and a group from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

May 4, 2000

Ms. Janice Lachance

Director

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

1900 E Street, NW

Washington, DC 20415-0001

Dear Ms. Lachance:

On behalf of the Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives, I thank you and the staff of Mr. Henry Romero for the presentation on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposal to update the Position Classification Standard for the GS-0200, Personnel and Industrial Relations Group. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on a proposal that Council members believe represents a major change in federal agency equal employment opportunity and civil rights programs.

During the OPM presentation, the Council learned that a new standard for the GS-0200 family was proposed to create a GS-0201 (Affirmative Employment) specialty position for individuals involved in affirmative employment plan development and achievement of workforce diversity goals. We also learned that the GS-0260 and GS-0360 series performing equal employment opportunity (EEO) work would be incorporated into the Investigation Group, GS-1800. Subsequent to the presentation, OPM released two draft standards: The JFS for Administrative Work in the Human Resources Management Group, GS-0200A, and the JFS for Assistance Work in the Human Resources Management Group, GS-0200C. We find these proposed changes problematic for the reasons listed below. The Council urges OPM to consider these observations as it continues to simplify job classifications.

1. The Legal Requirements for Agency Equal Employment Programs

Placing the responsibilities vested in agency equal employment programs under the Human Resources "umbrella," reverses the Congressional intent of the Civil Service Reform Act, 1978, for administrative enforcement of affirmative employment. The equal employment function was intended by Congress to be carried out by a neutral party, advocating for the law rather than for management's or the employee's position. Moreover, the Council found no provision in the proposal for assuring the continuation of Agency EEO directors, which directly contravenes one of the requirements of agency EEO programs. The notion that individuals, who are responsible to management for executing and advising on management's personnel actions, can also administer equal employment programs creates a conflict of position and interest. This is especially true where the motivation and impact of personnel actions are challenged by allegations of discrimination. The proposed segmenting of functions will contribute to this undesirable result and would contravene existing law.

2. The effectiveness of equal employment and civil rights programs

Our view is that splintering equal employment and civil rights programs greatly diminishes their prominence and effectiveness. Employees and supervisors have an expectation of and a right to an unbiased, equal employment program that is unified and unobscured.

3. Major civil rights responsibilities

The proposal overlooked the broad responsibilities of the equal employment opportunity and civil rights program by focusing on recruitment and personnel compliance matters. It does not recognize program responsibilities for equal access in education, housing, government sponsored or assisted programs, public accommodations matters, or contractor compliance with equal employment opportunity and civil rights laws.

4. National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) simplification of groups and series

The draft replaces 12 numerical series with 12 parenthetical descriptors. We fail to see any simplification in a proposal that replaces 12 with 12. Notably, OPM’s draft, Administrative Work Standard bifurcates recruitment work by applying two parenthetical descriptors -- Affirmative Employment and Recruitment and Placement.

The January 1999, OPM Handbook of Occupational Groups identifies three general schedule occupational groups, in four different series (GS-0160, 0260,0360, and 0361) that require a knowledge of civil rights and equal employment opportunity laws.

In the interest of the reform of the federal classification system, recommended by NPR, the Council recommends simplifying the system by creating one occupational group that includes all equal employment opportunity and civil rights positions.

The Equal Employment Opportunity and Civil Rights Group would include a series, a specific numerical code and parenthetical descriptions (civil rights analysis), (equal employment [affirmative employment] administration), (equal employment/civil rights assistant) and (equal employment /civil rights compliance). In this way, NPR recommendations are satisfied and congressional mandates are preserved.

Current		OPM Proposal			Council Recommendation
Group	Series		Group	Series		Group	Series
Social Science Civil Rights Analysis	GS-0100 GS-0160		Social Science Civil Rights Analysis	GS-0100 GS-0160		EEO and Civil Rights	GS-XXXX
Personnel Management EEO	GS-0200 GS-0260		Human Resources EEO	GS-0201 GS-201 (AE)
General Admin EEO Compliance EEO Assistant	GS-0300 GS-360 GS-361		General Admin EEO Assistant	GS-0300 GS-361
			Investigations EEO Compliance	GS-1800 GS-1801

While the Council agrees with the basic NPR premise that calls for government agencies to operate more efficiently, ultimately, it is a philosophical discourse without the weight of law. The national policy has long held that equal employment opportunity is very much a part of the American social fabric, and is supported by legislation, (the CSRA and Title VII). The proposed changes reduce the certainty that federal employees can exercise their rights as afforded by the law and as Congress intended.

Sincerely,

/S/

Luther L. Santiful

President, Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives