Term Paper on "Discrimination and Affirmative Action"

Term Paper 4 pages (1396 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

Should disabled veterans receive preferential treatment over better qualified candidates who are not disabled veterans?

First of all, the answer should be a qualified "yes," though it not that cut and dried. The federal law calls for federal (not private) employers to set up a plan of action in order to institute the requirements and specifics with regard to hiring disabled veterans.

Secondly, which disabled veterans are eligible to be hired based on affirmative action? The United States Office of Personnel Management reported to Congress (Springer, 2005) that as a generalization the U.S. has "an obligation to assist veterans of the Armed Forces in readjusting to civilian life... [and] therefore the policy of the United States and the purpose of these section... [is to] promote the maximum of employment and job advancement opportunities within the Federal Government for qualified covered veterans who are qualified for such employment and advancement."

Among those "qualified covered veterans" who qualify for employment are "disabled veterans" with a disability that reduces their functions by 30% (page 2); "thirty percent disabled" means a So, if a veteran is only disabled by a factor of 28%, then he or she would not be given preferential treatment, according to an objective reading of the law.

The definitions of veterans who are disabled is not restricted as to gender or ethnicity; a disabled veteran is a disabled veteran, whether a male, female, black, Latino, Asian, or Caucasian.

The Office of Personnel Management describes "30% disabled" as "disabled veterans who were retired from active military service... [and] rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (within the preceding year) as having a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more."

On page 6, the OPM annual report for year 2005 shows that of all veterans on the Federal Government payroll, about 20.3% (92,642) are "disabled veterans." So there is growth within the federal government in terms of hiring disabled veterans. There were no statistics offered in terms of how many disabled veterans were turned down because they were only 20 to 29% disabled.

Meanwhile, the definition of what the federal government has put forward as far as disabled veterans getting opportunities is spelled out in Title 5, the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 720, subpart C, the Disabled Veterans Affirmative Action Program (DVAAP). Let's establish out front that hiring decisions are made on a case-by-case basis in most government and private industry situations. Just because a man or woman walks into a federal work site and is 35% disabled, doesn't guarantee that person a job over another person. It may be that the veteran who is disabled knows nothing whatsoever about technology and computers, and the job requires some competency in those fields - plus no training is available.

So, there are complications and diverse situations that prevent a blanket statement being made that a veteran person who is 30% or more disabled can walk in and trump a non-disabled veteran. Indeed, what if the disability itself - that might otherwise make the person eligible by federal law - prevents the person from being physically able to perform the tasks? For example, what if the person has lost a hand in Iraq, and the job requires the use of two hands? Those are issues that have to be taken into consideration.

How the DVAAP program should with within a typical federal agency is very clearly spelled out by the Bonneville Power Administration, a federally operated project in the Northwest (using the Columbia River as a power source). By regulation, agency DVAAP plans "must include the following" (with reference to Title 5); a statement that acknowledges giving disabled veterans due consideration; the name and the title of the official who is "assigned overall responsibility for the development and implementation of the plan"; an assessment of the current status of veteran employment with the agency (special emphasis given of course to those with 30% disabilities); how recruitment will be carried out to find those disabled veterans; a plan for advancement of disabled veterans with the department; and finally, Bonneville Power Administration also was obliged to give a detailed description of how the project is progressing.

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