Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402060069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The government-wide inquiry will rely on analytical studies, focus groups and agency reviews to try to explain the disparity. One personnel specialist said he had never seen such a broad attack focused on such a specific personnel issue in his 30-year government career.
Government statistics, released in mid-December, showed that minority workers were fired at a rate of 10.2 per 1,000 employees, while whites were fired at a rate of 3.7 per 1,000 workers. The fiscal 1992 data immediately raised concerns about whether minority workers are treated unfairly and led to calls for remedial action.
By better understanding the difference in discharge rates, "we can devise actions to ensure continuing fairness for all employees," James King, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in a memo sent to all departments and agency heads.
The personnel office, which oversees the civil service employment system, will provide agencies with data on their firing rates. Brown University's sociology department will conduct an independent statistical analysis of the data.
King said that because firings usually occur "at the operating level," where supervisors and employees interact, he believes agency reviews will provide an understanding of why minorities make up a disproportionate share of discharges.
In a memo released Friday, King also said the Merit Systems Protection Board, the federal agency that rules on worker appeals of personnel actions, also has begun a special study. It will focus on "whether there are attitudinal or other non-merit related causes which may underline the racially disparate imposition of punishments," King wrote.
Late last year, the personnel office compiled discharge data for fiscal years 1992 and 1989. The 1989 data, for example, showed that minority workers were fired at a rate of 15.4 per 1,000 employees, while whites were fired at a rate of 4.8.
After reviewing the data, personnel office specialists said they believed further sampling would reveal similar discharge patterns for the last decade. The specialists said they could not explain the disproportionate number of firings of minority workers.
Minorities make up 28 percent of the federal civilian work force of about 2.2 million. The number of employees fired is statistically small, given the size of the government.
In fiscal 1992, nearly 12,000 federal workers were fired, 52 percent minorities. In fiscal 1989, about 16,000 were dismissed - 54 percent of them minorities.
Although firing disparities existed at all pay grades, some of the greatest differences involved low-level and clerical workers, the personnel office said. In the lowest five pay grades - usually annual salaries of less than $20,000 - minorities were fired at almost three times the rate of whites.
The data also suggested that most fired minority workers were on probation, usually an employee's first year on the job, or were classified as temporary hires.
In fiscal 1992, minorities on probationary status were fired at a rate of 2.9 per 1,000 employees, while whites were fired at a rate of 1.2 per 1,000.
In fiscal 1989, minority workers on probation were dismissed at a rate of 4.6 per 1,000, compared to 1.6 for non-minorities.
by CNB