Southwest Disputes reports its DEI program violated the law

Conservative advocacy group America First Legal Announces “Victory” on December 3 regarding its request to investigate Southwest Airlines’ DEI and ESG policies – but a closer look at Southwest’s documentation and information tells a different story.

The AFL has waged a war against diversity and corporate social responsibility programs, including targetamong others this year.

Regarding Southwest, the AFL filed a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs in January. The complaint alleged that Southwest violated federal law by engaging in discriminatory hiring and promotion practices through its DEI program while receiving federal funding.

“Americans are tired of open corporate discrimination under the guise of diversity, equity and inclusion. It is unacceptable that corporations would so openly use America’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars to meet their illegal race and gender quotas in order to achieve the ‘proper’ level of diversity and representation,” said Will Scolinos, attorney for ‘America First Legal, in a press release. Press release of December 3.

In a letter published by the AFL, an OFCCP regional director recognized receipt of complaint from advocacy group and said representatives “held an informal compliance conference” with Southwest on Dec. 2. He said airline executives “understand that OFCCP regulations do not permit quotas, preferences or reservations.”

The OFCCP letter states that Southwest agrees that “placement goals,” “utilization goals,” and “hiring criteria” should not be used as ceilings or floors when building its talent pools. talents. Instead, placement and utilization goals should be used as “a benchmark against which (Southwest) measures the representation of people within its workforce.”

HR Dive reached out to the AFL for clarification on how placement goals and criteria differ from quotas, and how it believes Southwest should proceed. The AFL did not respond.

No evidence of violation of federal law

In short, the DOL does not specify that there was any wrongdoing on Southwest’s part. Nowhere does it say that Southwest violated any of the labor laws mentioned, including Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act from 1974.

OFCCP Mid-Atlantic Regional Director Samuel Maiden declined to comment on the matter.

Additionally, the letter stated that Southwest planned to re-evaluate its employment practices if it failed to meet its hiring standards and that it would “take appropriate actions to resolve the identified issues and remedy any unlawful discrimination.”

“Such remedies may include evaluating and revising policies and practices that impede equal employment opportunity, expanding recruitment and outreach to increase the diversity of applicant pools, and/or Establishing training and/or apprenticeship programs to increase promotion opportunities and applications from under-represented groups.” the letter said.

Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

A Southwest spokesperson told HR Dive that it “will continue to recruit, hire and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.” The spokesperson confirmed the Dec. 2 informal conference, during which OFCCP “reiterated that Southwest should continue to comply with the regulations.”

“OFCCP has not determined any violations by the airline,” Southwest said.

Additionally, although the AFL said it “received confirmation” that Southwest had agreed to abandon its DEI practices based on the OFCCP letter, the letter did not indicate that changes would be made to its programs and Southwest did not indicate that it would change its program accordingly. of the debate.