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EMPLOYMENT LAW — 11/17/06

EEOC posts Job Classification Guide, FAQs for EEO-1 reports

The EEOC posted on its website the new Job Classification Guide that employers will use to complete EEO-1 reports beginning in 2007. The agency has also posted Questions and Answers: Implementation of Revised Race and Ethnic Categories, which provides answers to employers' frequently asked questions (FAQs) about how to implement the revised race, ethnic and job categories that are part of the revised EEO-1 report.

The EEO-1 report is the principal reporting form by which covered employers provide the federal government with a count of their workforces by ethnicity, race and gender, divided into job categories. Submitted annually to the Joint Reporting Committee, which includes the EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the report must be filed by: (1) private employers with 100 or more employees; and (2) employers with federal government contracts of $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees. In 2005, the EEOC approved revisions to the EEO-1 report's job categories and race and ethnic categories, which will be effective for the 2007 reporting cycle.

The new Job Classification Guide reflects the revisions to the EEO-1 report's job categories. It cross-references the 2000 Census job codes and the new EEO-1 report's ten job categories. The Guide is designed to help employers correctly classify employees according to the ten job categories listed in the new EEO-1 report. Individual job categories are explained in the EEO-1 Instruction Booklet, which provides a definition and examples of the types of jobs that are included in each category.

The EEOC's FAQ provides answers to many questions that employers may have about implementing the revisions to the EEO-1 report. For example, it states that the EEO-1 report, which is due on September 30, 2007, must be based on employment figures from any single pay period between July and September, 2007. While the EEOC encourages employers to resurvey current employees using the new race and ethic categories as soon as possible, the document clarifies that the agency will not require employers to resurvey those employees for the September 30, 2007 report. The FAQ also states that employers should seek self-identification of new hires under the new race and ethnic categories as soon as possible. If an employer believes that an employee is of a different race or ethnicity than he or she claims to be, that identification must nonetheless be accepted. When an employee refuses to self-identify, an employer may use existing employment records or visual observation to make the identification.

The EEOC's new Job Classifcation Guide and FAQ, along with other documents related to the revised EEO-1 report, are posted on the agency's website at: http://www.eeoc.gov/eeo1/index.html.

For more information on this and other topics, consult CCH Employment Practices Guide or CCH Labor Relations.

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