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FCC Admonishes RCN for EEO Violations
June 27, 2007
The FCC recently admonished RCN for violating equal employment opportunity (“EEO”) rules over a three-year period from 2004 - 2006. As indicated in a Media Bureau letter to the cable operator, RCN failed to: (i) engage in required EEO initiatives, (ii) place EEO program information on its website, and (iii) recruit properly for several job vacancies, all of which led the FCC to conclude that RCN did not adequately analyze its EEO program on an ongoing basis to verify its effectiveness in achieving broad outreach.
Under the EEO rules, multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”), including cable operators, are required to establish and implement a continuing program of outreach activities designed to ensure equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in employment. Among a number of specific obligations, the rules require MVPDs to announce full-time job vacancies in a manner that ensures wide dissemination and to engage in a certain number of recruitment initiatives each year, such as job fairs, as well as internship, scholarship, and training programs. MVPDs also are required to retain detailed records regarding EEO program activities and to file annual reports with the FCC demonstrating compliance with the rules.
RCN attributed the violations to shortages and changes in human resources staff. Signaling the FCC’s strict enforcement of the rules, however, the Media Bureau’s letter indicated that it would have initiated a forfeiture proceeding in this case had the statute of limitations not run.
Also significant is that although the FCC’s admonishment stemmed initially from a random audit of RCN’s 2006 annual EEO report, Bureau staff broadened its investigation to review records from the two preceding years. Presumably, the investigation could have covered an even longer time frame, as the EEO rules anticipate review of employment units at least once every five years, and retention of compliance documentation for a period of seven years.
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