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business Saturday 10 OctOber 2020
Trump administration targets diversity hiring by contractors

AP Business Writers Taylor said he believed the
American companies policies announced by
promising to hire more Microsoft and Wells Fargo
Black employees in leader- amounted to aspirational
ship roles and teach their goals, rather than quotas
workforce about racism based on race. But he said
are getting a message from announcing numbers may
President Donald Trump's have opened companies
administration: Watch your to discrimination com-
step if you want to keep plaints.
doing business with the fed- Companies can protect
eral government. themselves against claims
Trump's Labor Department of discrimination by wid-
is using a 55-year-old presi- ening their applicant pool
dential order spurred by to ensure a large enough
the Civil Rights Movement number of qualified minor-
to scrutinize companies like ity candidates, said Mabel
Microsoft and Wells Fargo Abraham, an assistant pro-
over their public commit- fessor of management at
ments to diversity. Govern- Columbia University. The
ment letters sent last week challenge, she said, is that
warned both companies companies have to show
against using "discriminato- they have measurable di-
ry practices" to meet their In this Oct. 2, 2019 file photo, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talks during a company event in New versity goals to attract tal-
goals. York. ented minority applicants
Microsoft has brushed off Associated Press in the first place.
the warnings, publicly dis- "Companies that are going
closing the government racist past," said employ- addressing racial injustice into their ranks since the to get the applicants are
inquiry and defending its ment attorney and public in response to the wave of protests over Floyd's death the ones that actually have
plan to boost Black leader- contracting expert Daniel Black Lives Matter protests shook the country and trig- minorities in top roles and
ship. Abrahams. that followed May's police gered a national reckoning that are putting out mes-
But advocates for cor- "Trump is turning it around killing of George Floyd in over racism. Many have sages of race and diversi-
porate diversity initiatives into an instrument of white Minneapolis. announced initiatives spe- ty," she said. "It's a chicken-
worry that more cautious grievances," he added. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadel- cifically targeting the Afri- and-egg problem."
executives will halt or scale The president has also or- la said in June that the tech can American community. The latest actions affect-
back efforts to make their dered the Labor Depart- company would double The CEOs of the 27 larg- ing contractors align with
workplaces more inclusive ment to set up a new ho- the number of Black and est employers in New York a broader Trump adminis-
out of fear that a wrong tline to investigate com- African American manag- — including Amazon and tration trend on matters of
step could jeopardize lu- plaints about anti-racism ers, senior individual con- J.P. Morgan — formed a race.
crative public contracts. training sessions that Trump tributors and senior leaders coalition to recruit 100,000 The Education Department
The agency has oversight has called "anti-American" by 2025. Wells Fargo CEO people from low-income last month opened an in-
over the hiring practices of and "blame-focused." The Charles Scharf made a sim- Black, Hispanic and Asian vestigation into racial bias
thousands of federal con- order signed last month ilar commitment in June to communities in the city by at Princeton University over
tractors that employ rough- calls attention to discus- doubling Black leadership 2030. More than 40 compa- the school's recent ac-
ly a quarter of all American sions of deep-seated rac- over the next five years. nies have joined a pledge knowledgment of racism
workers. ism and privilege that Abrahams said he doubts to add at least one Black on campus, and on Thurs-
"For tech companies that could make white workers that the Labor Depart- member to their board of day, the Justice Depart-
don't care about these is- feel "discomfort" or guilt. ment has much of a case directors by 2021. ment sued Yale University,
sues, the pronouncements Trade groups representing against companies that Several other top govern- weeks after prosecutors
are a dog whistle that they the tech and pharmaceuti- are trying to boost diversity, ment contractors have set found the university was ille-
can carry on discriminat- cal industries are protesting though "there's some dis- numeric goals for adding gally discriminating against
ing the way they already Trump's new order, saying it crimination against white Black or Latino employees, Asian American and white
have," said Laszlo Bock, would restrict free speech people that's probably ac- including consulting firms applicants, in violation of
an executive who ran and interfere with private tionable," and courts have Accenture and Deloitte. federal civil rights law.
Google's human resources sector efforts to combat danced around the ques- Johnny Taylor, the CEO of Trump's newest executive
division for more than a de- systemic racism. tion of what happens when the Society for Human Re- order also applies to edu-
cade and now leads soft- Trump's executive order is employers set "inflexible" source Management, said cational institutions that
ware startup Humu. a twist on Johnson's 1965 targets for racial quotas. he has asked for a confer- receive federal funding.
Bock said those who do directive and amendments But he said it's more likely ence with U.S. Labor Secre- At least one university, the
care, however, will see that followed that set rules the Trump administration tary Eugene Scalia to seek University of Iowa, suspend-
Trump's actions as political banning discriminatory is using the move as a clarity about the intention ed its diversity efforts in re-
"sound and fury" that will be practices at companies political tactic ahead of of the inquiries. sponse the order.
hard to enforce. that contract with the fed- the presidential election. "I want them to ensure the Liz Tovar, the university's in-
"It's not at all illegal to strive eral government. It requires Trump has criticized work- companies are complying terim associate vice presi-
to have a workforce that contractors to take "affir- place training that he says with the law but that inves- dent of diversity, equity
reflects the makeup of your mative action" to open the is based on critical race tigation doesn't result in a and inclusion, said the de-
nation," Bock said. doors to hiring minorities theory, or the idea that rac- chilling effect on diversity cision was taken because
Democratic President Lyn- and women. ism is systemic in the U.S. and inclusion programs," of "the seriousness of the

don B. Johnson's 1965 order But the Labor Department Dozens of companies have said Taylor, whose organi- penalties for non-compli-
was designed to "adjust is raising questions about ramped up their efforts zation represents 300,000 ance with the order, which
the imbalances of hiring the specificity of commit- to bring more Black and human resource profes- include the loss of federal
that are a legacy of our ments made by executives other minority employees sionals across the world. funding."q