Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 02090056
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED137503 AUTHOR:
TITLE: Last Hired, First Fired: Layoffs and Civil Rights.
A
Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1977
NOTE: 98 p.
ABSTRACT: The effects of the 1974-75 economic recession on
the effort to ensure equal employment opportunity for the
Nation's minority groups and women are examined in the
first
section of this report, which documents the layoff of
disproportionately large numbers of minority and female
workers during the recession, generally resulting from the
fact that many were only recently hired and thus had earned
little seniority. It is concluded that the recession
seriously eroded affirmative action gains of recent years,
frustrating the intent of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, Executive Order 11246, as amended, and other
programs enacted to help minority and female workers narrow
the historic economic gap between them and white male
workers. The likelihood of continuing high unemployment and
future economic slowdowns, which threaten not only
vulnerable minority and women workers with low seniority,
but many white males, particularly youths, as well, is
analyzed. The social costs of such unemployment,
particularly that involving job losers and discouraged
workers are described. Two sections of the report discuss
layoffs and seniority and review the legality of layoffs by
seniority when disproportionate numbers of minorities or
women are affected. Alternatives to layoffs are explored in
the fourth section, some of them already widely practiced
in
Western Europe and by some industries in the U.S. (e.g.,
reduction of hours, early retirement, rotation of layoffs,
cuts in cost other than wages). In the concluding section
suggestions are made for explicit Federal guidelines by the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with regard to the
"last hired, first fired" conflict based on the principle
that all seniority-based layoff policies should be invalid
as they apply to any work force that does not mirror the
relevant labor market and the composition of which cannot
be
explained successfully by the employer. (JT)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Administrative-Agencies; Affirmative
Action; Agency-Role; Business-Cycles; Civil-Rights
Legislation; Court-Litigation; Economic-Climate; Economic
Factors; Employers-; Employment-Statistics; Federal
Government; Guidelines-; Legal-Responsibility
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Equal-Opportunities-Jobs; *Females-; *Job
Layoff; *Minority-Groups; *Personnel-Policy; *Seniority-
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