"We are committed to the elimination of any vestige of discrimination, whether it is on the basis of sex, religion, national origin, color, or race." ROBERT E. HAMPTON U.S. Civil Service Commission With Executive Order 11478, which was signed on August 8, 1969, President Nixon not only reaffirmed the Federal Government's goal of equal employment opportunity, he directed that efforts toward the goal should be strengthened. Seeing to its strengthening is the responsibility of the Civil Service Commission. Shortly after the signing, Chairman Hampton met with the top staffs of all Federal agencies, expressing the commitment of this Administration to equal employment opportunity, and reflecting the new directions spelled out by the President in his Executive order. Subsequent meetings were held with agency directors of Equal Employment Opportunity, personnel directors, and other groups of agency officials, to mpress on agencies the urgency of the task and to assist them in achieving our common objective. One of the Commission's early actions was an "in-house" reorganization to concentrate the program staff in one office under the Executive Director. As Government-wide Coordinator, he heads a program staff consisting of the Assistant Executive Director, the Director of the Office of Equal Employment Opporunity, and the Director of the Federal Women's Program. In addition to this strengthening action at headquarters, the Commission established full-time equal employment representatives in each of its 10 egional offices. They are charged with carrying equal employment opportunity action directly to field installations. Guidelines for Agency Action Plans This reorganization effected in our own shop the first of eight suggestions we made to agencies in December in an outline for their plans of action to implement Executive Order 11478. The suggestion stressed organization and resources to administer the EEO program positively and effectively, with the assignment of specific responsibilities and authority for program management at all levels in the area. We asked not for pious statements of good intentions and goodwill philosophy, but for plans of very definite action, complete with target dates. We asked that they be sensitive to specific minority problems and at the same time realistic and relevant to agency needs. They were to include, for the first time, a plan of action for the Federal Women's Program, by now recognized as officially part and parcel of the whole equal opportunity effort. Early in fiscal 1970, the Commission authorized agencies to maintain minority employment statistics on ADP equipment. This method-operated with proper safeguards to assure individual privacy and the separation of minority employment data from personnel records-will contribute current and comprehensive statistical information to assist in proper management. The most recent large-scale minority survey was undertaken in November 1969, after a 2-year interval. It revealed what we had worked hard and hoped hard for namely, that Negroes, Spanish-surnamed Americans, American Indians and Oriental Americans now hold more of the better-paying Federal jobs than they held in any previous period covered by a minority survey. The percentage of minority employees in the Federal service increased from 18.9 percent to 19.2 percent while the total work force was shrinking, but the vital part of these statistics, which are presented in detail in appendix G to this report, emerges in the increases in better-paying jobs. In grades GS-5 through 15, their numbers increased at a rate three to five times the rate for other employees. In grades GS-5 through 8 the increase was 16.8 percent; in grades 9 through 11, 27.1 percent; in grades 12 and 13, 36.4 percent; and in grades 14 and 15, 48.4 percent. At the executive levels of the career service, grades 16 through 18, even though there was a net decline of 173 positions Governmentwide, there was a slight gain in positions occupied by minority-group members. Similar upward trends were revealed in the Postal Field Service, Wage System, and other pay system employment. Appendix G breaks the statistics down by race and ethnic groupings. It shows that Negroes-who comprise about 90 percent of minority-group Americansmade up about 15 percent of the total Federal work force. In grades GS-9 through 11, their numbers increased by 29 percent; in grades GS-12 to 15, by 40 percent. Spanish-surnamed workers also registered numerical and percentage gains. The employment of American Indians stayed about the same, that of Oriental Americans was up slightly. Although statistics do not tell the whole story, they are an important means of measuring progress or lack of it. Recognizing the need for more timely information than the large-scale biennial surveys provide, however, we intend to get more frequent reports in the future. In February 1970 the Commission began working with agencies on ways to monitor progress on a more current basis. Overall minority-group employment data will hereafter be gathered as of May 31 each year, and a comprehensive study made annually as of November 30. This is made possible by keeping the data on ADP equipment a major tool for problem analysis and the determination of necessary action. The increase in minority-group employment referred to above is due in part to the extension of recruiting efforts to additional sources of minority candidates, and this is point two in the December guidelines to agencies on action plans. We asked them to involve their equal employment opportunity staffs-directors, officers, and counselors to help assure that their recruiting efforts are reaching all sources, including minority groups and women. Our work to expand cooperative education programs with predominantly Negro colleges, discussed in chapter V of this report, is part of this plan. Special efforts are being made to recruit minoritygroup persons and women into professional-level occupations. To this end, we have expanded contacts with minority-group and women's organizations, professional societies, and other sources of candidates for technical, professional, and management-level positions. Members of the Commission staff now meet on a bimonthly basis with representatives of such organizations in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. They include the Urban League, National Conference of Christians and Jews, NAACP, League of United Latin American Citizens, League of Women Voters, National Federation of Business and Professiona Women's Clubs, Federally Employed Women, Nationa Congress of American Indians, unions of Federal em ployees, and many others-actually, some 40 in all The effect is a gratifying improvement of communica tions with some of our very diversified—and very im portant-publics. Our action-plan guidelines to agencies stress ful utilization of the present skills of present employees To determine these skills, we are asking agencies to undertake surveys of underutilized or nonutilized skill available in the existing work force. Findings will b used to establish "skills banks" to match underutilized employees with available job opportunities, including those created by job restructuring and the develop ment of entry-level and trainee positions to permi movement between occupational areas. Executive Order 11478 recognized that yesterday's contention that too many minority-group employees and women had been locked too long in lower gradeshas become today's consensus. As Chairman Hampton has reiterated, we must provide opportunities for them to receive necessary training so that they will be eligible to move to higher grade levels. Upward mobility en compasses career systems and the creation of caree development plans for lower grade employees who are underutilized, or who demonstrate potential for advancement. It provides for career counseling and guid ance, and for educational and training opportunities for employees who can benefit from them. Upward mobility as an action concept establishes personnel procedures to assure that placements are made so that skills are utilized, and to assure that agency qualifications standards facilitate mobility. Active programs are recommended to communicate specific information on upward mobility programs and opportunities to employees. Upward mobility will be a watchword—and we hope, a password-to career de velopment in the equal employment opportunity program. Shortly after the President signed the new Execu tive order, the Commission directed agencies to include in the performance rating of supervisors an evaluation of their performance in the area of equal employment opportunity. We also suggested provision for incentives for program understanding and support by supervisors and managers in this sensitive field. We believe the supervisor is the key to equal employ ment opportunity. The rating of a supervisor's per formance should therefore include an evaluation of his or her commitment and action in this area. Following the issuance of guidelines for developing incentive rograms to stimulate and reward managers and others or exceptional performance in achieving equal emloyment opportunity, several agencies have cited utstanding employees and held formal awards eremonies. In addition to equal employment opportunity covrage in formal supervision and management training ourses, new training programs are being aimed at ederal managers with the specific objective of estabishing a worksite atmosphere of effective equality. The Role of the Federal Executive Boards The Civil Service Commission cannot regulate fair ousing, nor is it within our purview to fund transporation and day-care centers, but we can and do support ommunity efforts to achieve these things. In the field, Federal Executive Boards have estabished continuing relationships with community groups and local agencies which have responsibility for or nterest in fair housing. They work for adherence to uidelines of the General Services Administration and Department of Housing and Urban Development on he availability of housing in planning moves of Fedral facilities. They cooperate with local planning groups and pubc or franchised transportation authorities to try to ssure routing of adequate public transportation beween Federal worksites and residential areas of all egments of the community. They work with area real state interests to develop listings of fair housing and ww-income housing opportunities for Federal employes or applicants, and provide a mechanism for keeping stings up to date. ocus on High Schools In addition to working with minority and women's olleges to improve curricula that will help attract udents into the professions, the Commission in 1970 arned its attention to improving our high school relaons and recruiting. Two efforts in the central office erit mention here, because both are consonant with e equal employment opportunity thrust, and both late to our commitment to mining all manpower urces. The first is a 26-minute 16 mm. color film, sized for ecast as well as for screening, called "A Good Place Start," where the dialogue is from real life. Each of ar high school graduates (not actors, but actual civil vice employees) tells his or her own story of what s like to work for the Federal Government. The ung people participating are perfectly honest and aightforward, and they get the point across to high school audiences, without specifically saying so, that it pays to get that diploma. The second central office special effort during the year was the Speakers Bank program, set up by the Washington Interagency Board in January 1970 as a means of communicating Federal career opportunities and employment procedures to young people in high schools and community colleges in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Twenty different departments and agencies nominated a total of 60 speakers to participate in the program. Training sessions were held to review local labor market conditions, manpower needs, and appropriate examinations for high school and community college students. In its first 6 months of operation, the Speakers Bank covered 25 high schools, three community colleges, and three vocational schools. Some participants spoke to small classroom groups, while others addressed large assemblies. The audiences ranged in size from 10 to 250 and included parents and teachers as well as students. Anticipating the beginning of the fall term, the Speakers Bank was reactivated through a reorientation session. An increase in the number of requests was anticipated, requiring full utilization of all Speakers Bank participants. Complaints, Now and Then Our new discrimination complaint procedure, inaugurated in July 1969, is working exceptionally well. Our equal employment opportunity counselors, specially trained, are proving invaluable. They are the channel through which those who believe they have been discriminated against can get their grievances before management quickly and get an informal resolution. This strong emphasis on informal resolutions— 12,003 Federal employees were counseled by equal employment opportunity counselors in fiscal 1970-has resulted in a significant drop in formal complaints. Fiscal 1970 saw a total of 1,025 formal complaints received Government-wide. April, May, and June 1970 saw an average of 91 formal complaints, compared with an average of 147 monthly during the same period in 1969, which was the last 3 months before the new regulations went into effect. While many employees are taking advantage of the opportunity to air their grievances to knowledgeable counselors and we welcome their so doing-we also welcome the substantive decrease this process has produced in the formal complaints, which are expensive and time-consuming and do nothing to improve employee-management relations. Complaints pending in agencies, however, are averaging 209 days-almost 7 months-in processing. This is much too long, and we are taking steps to correct this condition. Equal Employment Opportunity Evaluation An important part of our equal employment opportunity effort is the on-site evaluation of agency activities. Occasionally such a review is made at the special request of an agency. Two such reviews were made in the Washington metropolitan area during fiscal 1970. One request came from the D.C. Department of Human Resources, the other from the Government Printing Office. The Civil Service Commission has made equal opportunity reviews in over 500 installations each year for the past three fiscal years, and has made many recommendations to strengthen the program. Recently new self-evaluation guidelines were issued to agencies, which will permit them to evaluate their own equal employment opportunity programs more effectively a process intended to supplement, not supplant, Commission inspections. Quest for Equality-the Federal Women's Program Let it be said at the outset that every guideline, every underlying precept of the Federal Government's equal employment opportunity program has always applied to women. Nevertheless, a few words about the Federal Women's Program may be in order, since this year it got where it is—namely, in the mainstream of equal employment opportunity. This year the Commission gave responsibility for direction of the program to the Director of Equal Employment Opportunity in each agency-usually a person of Assistant Secretary status. We have directed each agency to appoint a Federal Women's Coordinator or an Advisory Committee, to serve on the staff of this Director. This was done to raise the attention level of the program and to assure that actions on equal opportunity will thus relate to all employees, including women. We have strengthened the role of the Commission's Director of the Federal Women's Program by placing that position in the Executive Director's office. A survey of women employees in Federal whitecollar jobs, completed after the new Executive order was issued, shows that women make up 33.4 percent of the work force. While they serve in virtually all occupations there are women geologists, women nu clear engineers, and even women air traffic control s cialists-most serve in the administrative, clerical, a technical occupations. And predictably so, beca these are at once the occupations for which most wo en in the past have prepared themselves, and well among the occupations traditionally labeled "wome work." This is the reason for the thrust today to p suade more young women to prepare themselves e cationally for gainful employment in fields fai labeled neither "male" nor “female”—in fact, labe not at all. Of 665,000 women employed as of October 31, 19 in full-time Federal white-collar positions-or 3 percent of this work force-517,000 of them w in grades GS-1 through 6, representing 46.3 perc of the total employment at these grade levels. In t middle and higher grades, GS-7 through 12, the were 138,000 women or 20.2 percent of total empl ment at these grades. At the senior levels, GS-13 a above, there were over 7,000 women or 3.8 percent the total in these grade levels. These figures indicate some progress from previc years-for example, women in grades GS-7 throu 12 held 30,000 more jobs in these grades in 1969 th in 1966. Over the same period, in grades GS-13 a above, there was an increase of approximately 2,0 women. The slow but steady progress points out whe greater effort needs to be focused. While the total nu ber of women in the Federal work force continues increase, there is still a heavy concentration of wom in the lower grades-not only in the General Schedu but in other pay systems as well. This is a situati very much like that affecting minority-group e ployees, and one which the Commission believes ca should, and will be responsive to affirmative actio by agencies and to agency efforts toward upward m bility through training and career development. Some of these affirmative actions are already progress. The Commission has published a report the 1969 Federal Women's Program Review Semina and the suggestions it embodies will be guides future reference to the Federal Women's Progra We are on record in favor of legislation to chan laws which now provide different treatment of m and women regarding personnel benefits. For examp in the 91st Congress we reported favorably on H. 468 which would ensure the same benefits for wido and widowers of employees who die while in servic 1 Public Law 91-658, amending the Retirement Act include this provision among others, was approved January 1971. This will remove the last remaining difference between enefits for men and for women in the Federal civil ervice retirement law. Our position would be genrally supportive of other legislation similarly intenjoned where Federal employees are concerned. We have set up an Interagency Advisory Group lubcommittee of Federal Women's Program Coordiators, which will assist the Commission in publishing guide for Coordinators that should prove helpful implementing agency programs. We are continuing a close liaison with women's rganizations and have asked for their input on prorams effecting equal opportunity for women. We lanned a seminar in October 1970 at the Federal xecutive Institute with agency equal employment pportunity officials, including Federal Women's Proram Coordinators, on how they can become more roductive in assuring and advancing equal opporanity in their agencies. We want to enhance the opportunities for women move back into the labor force after raising amilies. We have long permitted qualifications credit or volunteer and civic work in which women who are ut of the labor force may be involved. This has helped nd will continue to help women move back into gainl employment at a level commensurate with their ills and abilities. We encourage agencies to make art-time work opportunities available and many agenes have significant programs along this line. At least ree agencies in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan ea have day-care centers, and others in Washington d in the field are working on models. This will be other area of continuing concern to the Commission that women with young children will have an equal portunity to accept employment. While we are making concerted efforts to tap the utilized and underutilized skills of women already the Federal work force, we are looking ahead to e women who will be Federal employees in the ure. We have prepared a Civil Service Commission mphlet, "Expanding Opportunities. . . Women in Federal Government," for use in counseling high ool and college girls in an effort to persuade them train for entering professions they usually do not sider. Few qualified women, for example, are availe for jobs in the medical, physical, and natural ences and in engineering, where many of today's portunities for advancement occur. Only a small nber of women are even enrolled in degree proms in these fields. We would like to see more of n-indeed, the Nation needs more of them, needs of its people's knowledge and know-how, to search out solutions to a seemingly endless escalation of problems, both technological and human. Women have proved their capability, many times over. Today they are seeking not merely their just equal rights, but their overdue equal responsibilities, and recognition for fulfilling them. In Summary Through the hue and cry of mixed acclaim and assault that the equal employment opportunity program is experiencing, one fixed fact emerges. Nobody is satisfied—neither minority groups nor women. But if not satisfied, at least a fair number of people involved in the program are gratified that it is going somewhere, and the direction is up. The 1970 Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, entitled Federal Civil Rights Enforcement Effort, contains a chapter on Federal employment. While noting inequities that remain and that demand further improvement, the Report describes in detail the progress made in Federal agencies under Civil Service Commission leadership, and concludes: "Measures which have been undertaken by CSC in recent years have gone far toward attaining equal opportunity within the concept of a merit system of employment." Deserving Special Emphasis the Disadvantaged Government has an obligation, as the Nation's largest employer, to do its fair share in responding to one of the Nation's crying needs-training the disadvantaged, who have known few of their country's privileges, to achieve the dignity of self-support. In spite of retrenchment and widespread cutbacks, fiscal 1970 saw the Federal Government meeting its obligations to needy youth in Summer Aid programs nationwide. Some 70,000 young men and women, aged 16 to 22, most of them all too well-acquainted with deprivation, got what was for many their first acquaintance with the world of paid work. Performing in a wide range of occupations both blue- and whitecollar, they also got valued counseling and other assistance that helped some of them to stay in school and others to get year-round jobs. Also in fiscal 1970, a major breakthrough was the lifting of manpower ceiling restrictions on agencies in connection with the employment in permanent jobs of the so-called "hard-core unemployed." The Commission worked this out with the Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget) so that agencies could be encouraged to participate in the Public Service Careers program, funds for which are |