The overall mission of the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office (EOAA), is to ensure University compliance with the law and spirit of equal opportunity and affirmative action. Areas of responsibility include issues related to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or status as a disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran, or other protected veteran as persons in these groups are part of the University community as employees, students, and members of the public. For more information about the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office, see their website.
Federal and state laws are in place to protect workers from discrimination. The laws protect us all. For example:
Look at this list. You fit into one or more of these groups.
Race - Color - Sex - Religion - Creed - National Origin - Disability - Vietnam Veteran - Disabled Veteran - Sexual Orientation - Age - Marital Status.
All persons are at least of a particular race, age or gender, and we are all covered by Federal and State laws and University policy that protect us all against discrimination and harassment in the work environment.
Sexual Harassment is a form of sex discrimination and is illegal in the work place. The University believes the best prevention against discrimination is education and training.
New employees are expected to register and attend a Prevention of Sexual Harassment class within two months of beginning their employment.
Affirmative Action is designed to correct the negative effects on groups that have beendiscriminated against historically. It is the "awareness" part of equal opportunity. Affirmative action regulations serve as tools to identify barriers in the workplace.
The following employee groups are covered by the University affirmative action plan:
Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action will work only if we all play a part. Equal Opportunity and Affirmative action work together to create a work place that is fair and free from discrimination.
As a federal contractor the University is required to maintain an affirmative action plan. For this reason the University of Washington requests affirmative action information from all employees upon hire. Employees entering the University workforce are asked to identify their race, sex, date of birth, disability, and veteran status using Affirmative Action Data UoW form 1325.
This information is kept separate from personnel files and is reported in aggregate form to various federal and state agencies. The Affirmative Action Reports provides as example of the data as reported.
