Yes. The exemption is based on the total number of apprentices per sponsor – not per employer. Thus, if the number of apprentices in the sponsor’s program is five or more, the sponsor is required to maintain an Affirmative Action Program. Regardless of the number of employers or the distribution of apprentices across them, if the total number of apprentices is five or more, the sponsor is required to have an Affirmative Action Program.
If a sponsor has several participating employers, and each participating employer has fewer than five apprentices, is the sponsor required to have an Affirmative Action Program?
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No. Each sponsor simply needs to maintain an up-to-date plan and make it available to the Registration Agency upon request, including during its compliance review.
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Yes. All Registered Apprenticeship Programs need to take some additional steps that are not required by EEOC and OFCCP. These include:
- Clearly stating that discrimination is prohibited in recruiting, hiring, training, assigning, evaluating, promoting, disciplining, rewarding, or terminating apprenticeship applicants or apprentices on any of the following bases: race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age (40 and older), sexual orientation, disability, and genetic information
- Posting their equal opportunity pledge; assigning an individual to coordinate Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO); maintaining an outreach and recruitment list; and providing anti-harassment training to all individuals associated with the apprenticeship program, including all apprentices and journeyworkers who regularly work with apprentices
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The deadline for sponsors registered with the national Office of Apprenticeship to put an initial Affirmative Action Program in place is two years after a program’s registration date, or two years from the date the program registers its fifth apprentice – whichever is later.
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The written Affirmative Action Plan must include the following components:
- Workforce analyses for race, sex, and ethnicity (comparing the workforce and availability analyses)
- Utilization goals for race, sex, and ethnicity (if necessary)
- Utilization goals for individuals with disabilities
- Targeted outreach, recruitment, and retention activities (if necessary)
- Review of personnel processes
- Invitations to self-identify as an individual with a disability
Each of these components requires a sponsor to examine different elements of its apprentice workforce, document its review, and determine whether any element of its program is adversely impacting individuals within certain groups. A guide preparing sponsors to develop their plans is available on the Create Your Plan Equal Employment Opportunity webpage.
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