"Uniform Guidelines" - INTRODUCTION

History and Theory:  When Congress adopted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it was a race-neutral document which simply and eloquently mandated non-discrimination in the selection, hiring and promotion of employees.  The original, unamended Civil Rights Act prohibited the use of race as a reason to grant or deny an employment opportunity or any other opportunity in this country.

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          The original, unamended Civil Rights Act of 1964 thus explicitly prohibited the use of racial preferences, racial quotas, racial targets or racial goals -- or any other form of racial discrimination or preference.  The Act was initially a good and noble piece of legislation.

          Unfortunately, Congress and the federal agencies responsible for implementing,   monitoring, and enforcing compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 wasted little time in writing regulations which imposed racial and gender quotas and preferences upon all government agencies, government contractors and private employers.

          By 1966 several federal agencies had devised "guidelines" pertaining to the original Civil Rights Act.   These various agency guidelines had the force of law and enshrined the "disparate impact / adverse impact" and "proportional representation" theories which underlie most of today's racial quota laws, as follows:

(1) The various agency guidelines stipulated that any employment test or selection procedure which resulted in a higher failure rate by protected races and genders vs. the failure or success rates of non-protected groups (especially white males) constituted de facto discrimination against minorities and was therefore automatically presumed to be evidence of illegal discrimination; and

(2) Any employer who failed to employ the same proportion of protected minorities and genders as in the general population (vs. white or non-preferred racial / gender groups) was presumed to be guilty of de facto discrimination.

          Between 1966 and 1978 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the Civil Service Commission (now the Office of Personnel Management) had implemented their own "guidelines" for minority selection and hiring.  But the various agencies' regulations were somewhat inconsistent and sometimes in conflict with each other.

          Therefore, in 1978, these agencies got together and issued the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP).  These Uniform Guidelines resolved the differences between the EEOC, DOJ, DOL and the old Civil Service Commission (now the OPM) versions and today they remain the standard government reference on the subject. 

JOB-RELATED CRITERIA:

          One of the ways in which the Uniform Guidelines enforce racial preferences and quotas is through the definition of "Job-Related Criteria".  Essentially, the Uniform Guidelines define valid "Job-Related Criteria" as any measure of abilities, personality, personal background, and biographical data which result in the "correct" proportion of protected minorities being hired while at the same time nominally meeting the technical requirements of the job.   Conversely, any selection or testing procedure which fails to result in the hiring or promotion of a "proportionate" number of protected minorities is deemed by the Guidelines to constitute illegal discrimination unless the employer can prove otherwise.  In layman's terms, the latter is known as "guilty until proven innocent".

          In an effort to disguise the racial quota agenda behind the Uniform Guidelines, the Guidelines contain extensive rules and statistical procedures regarding how an employer may determine if their selection criteria are, in fact, "job-related" as defined by the Guidelines.  The Guidelines specify in great detail the means by which employers are allowed to construct employment tests and selection instruments which result in the "right" number of protected minorities being hired.  This process is known euphemistically as "minimizing or eliminating adverse impact".

          The Guidelines also impose intrusive, burdensome racial record keeping requirements upon employers so that federal regulators and enforcement agencies can tell at a glance if the employer has, in fact, hired the right number of protected minorities.

          Each agency which participated in development of the Guidelines is governed by a different title of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), each with a slightly different structure but with the exact, same content.  Each agency's CFR title for the "Uniform Guidelines" is as follows:

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cites the guidelines as 29 CFR Part 1607

• Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs cites the guidelines as 41 CFR Part 60-3

• Department of Justice cites the guidelines as 28 CFR 50.14

• Civil Service Commission (now the Office of Personnel Management) cites the guidelines as 5 CFR 300.103(c)

The version of the Guidelines reproduced in these pages uses the U.S. Dept. of Labor version (41 CFR Part 60-3).

Uniform Guidelines on Employment Selection Procedures (1978)
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