Hire Affirmative Action Officers

Section 2 - requires that every affirmative action officer/administrator employed by a state agency shall be employed the agency head and report directly to that person and no one else in so as to provide these employees with access to the top decision making authority in that agency. This will help address the issue of lack of diversity in state agencies because workforce planning issues by agency heads will have input by such employees. Affirmative action officers/ administrator are required to participate in recruitment and interviewing process.

Section 3 - requires for the establishment of a continuing education program (CEP) for all affirmative action officers/administrators that will help them gain the necessary skills to perform their jobs by learning about rules and regulations relating to affirmative action, equal employment opportunity and human rights. Changes in these laws at both the federal and state level, and court decisions require such ongoing training for these employees to be successful in their job requirements. Requires that the CEP must be in place for 18 months prior to any examination for AA0 and AAA.

Section 4 - This section requires that all state agencies that employee 100 or more employees shall have a full-time affirmative action officer/administrator. Presently, many agencies do not have a dedicated affirmative action officer/administrator and individuals now performing such duties have conflict of interest situations because they have other job requirements and other job classifications mixed with their affirmative action duties. In large agencies, these employees have no staff and are unable to perform these duties effectively while having to focus on other job requirements because of their dual job roles. This will eliminate such conflicts of interest and allow for affirmative action officers/administrators to have civil rights as their sole responsibility.

Justification

A 2005 report by the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, a subsequent public hearing and other meetings with minority workers has yielded valuable suggestion that need legislative action to remedy what the 2005 report called, an appalling under-representation of minorities in civil service and policy making positions in the Pataki Administration. This is one of five proposals put forward by task force to address the problems.

The lack of workforce diversity now seen in New York State was created because over the years affirmative action officers/administrators have no job protection, and are marginalized by agency heads. In fact, many of the current employee performing such duties are not MOs. This legislation reverses this situation and strengthens the role of these employees by providing them with a variety of tools.

This legislation mandates that all affirmative action officers/administrators shall be hired as competitive classified positions. The common practice of not providing AAAs and AAOs with protected employment status has created fear and an inability to authoritatively perform their duties.

This legislation will provide job security, promotion opportunities and require that these employees report directly to agency head and no one else. Presently AAOs report to a variety of low level managers that show no priority in EEO guidelines. The result of this problem is documented by the findings of the report mentioned above: *In 2005, Hispanics made up over 16% of the entire state population but accounted for only 3.8 percent or 6.515 of the 169.571 jobs in the state government workforce. In real terms, this is a decline in close to 1,000 jobs since 1991 or a 12.2% reduction in the number of Hispanic state workers. This reduction came during a period when the Hispanic population in New York grew by 33%.

*In 2015 Hispanics make up almost 19% of the entire state population but account for 400 less jobs than they had in State government or 6,142 jobs out of 131,800.

*Since 1991, the African-American civil service workforce has seen a dramatic decline. The 8,836 jobs lost by this group represent a 26.7% decline in the African-American state workforce. This reduction came during a period when the African-American population in New York grew by 13.1%.

*For African-Americans, the loss of the 8,836 jobs at the average state salary of $53,000 translates into a loss of over $468 million dollars in annual salaries. For Hispanics their under-representation translates into a loss of over $860 million in annual salaries.

Prior legislative history

2016: S.7146- REFERRED TO CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSIONS/A.8038-referred to governmental employees 2015: A.8038- referred to governmental employees

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

Not applicable.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law, provided that subdivision of section 12-a of the civil service law, as amended by section one of this act shall take effect on the 180th day after it shall have become a law.