Significant EEO Fines Issued
The FCC has issued two significant forfeitures (fines) in recent days for violations of its Equal Employment Opportunity (“EEO”) rules and related record keeping requirements. These fines serve as a reminder that stations must develop, implement and document their EEO programs, or face sanctions from the FCC. Our primer on how to comply with the FCC's EEO rules can be found here.
Yesterday, the Commission issued a decision against the licensee of a cluster of radio stations for failing to comply with the Commission’s EEO initiatives, including outreach, periodic self-assessment, record keeping, and public file requirements. The decision was the result of a random EEO audit, and a copy of the complete decision is available here. The licensee had owned the stations for only a few years and was not entirely sure when the cluster had crossed the threshold of having five full-time employees, and thus, when it was first required to conduct a full EEO program. Because of the complete lack of records documenting the hires made during the applicable period (covering nearly a year and a half), the Commission had a hard time assessing the licensee’s vacancy specific recruitment efforts. But in the end, the Commission issued a proposed fine in the amount of $13,000 for violations including: 1) failing to perform any EEO initiatives; 2) failing to prepare and place in the public inspection file the required annual EEO report; 3) failing to maintain and file EEO documentation and records required by the rules; and 4) failing to adequately analyze its recruitment program. The FCC also imposed reporting conditions requiring the licensee to file periodic reports with the FCC through 2010 so that it can monitor the stations’ EEO efforts in the future.
The Commission continued this momentum today, with an even larger fine – this one for $20,000 – issued to a broadcast television station in Texas for, among other things, failing to widely disseminate information regarding the vast majority of its job vacancies, failing to provide notification of job openings to organizations requesting such information, failing to analyze the station’s efforts, and failing to maintain proper documentation. This enforcement action was also the result of a random EEO audit, and a complete copy of the decision is available here.
Notably, the Commission found that the station failed to recruit for every full-time vacancy at the station and had relied solely on walk-ins to fill eleven vacancies. According to the Commission a walk-in candidate does not reflect any recruitment effort on the part of the licensee. So be sure to ask your interviewees where they heard about the position and include that information in your documentation. Furthermore, the Commission found that the licensee failed to recruit for 19 vacancies and relied instead solely on referrals from current employees or other individuals. The station often relied on one Internet web site and/or referrals as the sole means of disseminating information about job openings. Although the Commission does not set a minimum number of sources that must be used for each job opening, the sources have to reasonably be expected, collectively, to reach the entire community. Here the Commission found that the single source, or even the source combined with referrals, could not reasonably be expected to reach the entire community. Finally, extrapolating from the lack of recruitment sources and the lack of information regarding the source of interviewees referred by each source, the Commission found that the station had failed to periodically assess its EEO program as required by the Rules (the theory being, if it had done a periodic assessment it would have discovered the deficiencies).
Given the significant amounts of these fines, broadcasters are encouraged to review their own EEO compliance and make sure it’s up to snuff before the next round of random EEO audits, which should be forthcoming. Remember, the FCC has promised to audit 5% of all broadcast stations annually, and the selection of one station in a cluster requires reporting for the hiring at all stations within that employment unit, this means that, if you haven't been audited yet, you could be hearing from the FCC soon.