In late March, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that the promotion test battery has an adverse effect on African-Americans and Hispanics and violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among those bringing the charges are PEF member Gustav Santos, a minority business specialist 1 at the state Transportation Department, and Merton Simpson, a managerial employee for state Department of Civil Service (DCS) in Albany.

A private organization, “Blacks in Government,” supported these efforts challenging the fairness of the promotion test battery with the EEOC.
PEF and its members have questioned the fairness of some uses of the promotion test battery ever since 1996, when the DCS introduced it as a kind of one-size-fits-all approach to testing “core skills” for promotions to supervisory and managerial positions.

“We have been concerned that the promotion test battery is an inadequate measure of the necessary skills and knowledge required for specific positions, and that Civil Service relies too heavily on promotion test battery scores in some cases,” said PEF Secretary-Treasurer Jane Hallum.

“This is an important issue for our members,” said PEF Vice President Jean DeBow. “And we are closely monitoring this situation to ensure the standards of merit and fitness are protected.”
Under the EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, once the test has been found to have a disparate effect, the employer must be able to show that the test is job-related for the position in question and “consistent with business necessity.”
EEOC has offered to work with DCS to eliminate the violation. If that fails, EEOC may go to court to enforce its ruling.

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