Online Job Postings Satisfy EEO Requirements, FCC Says
The FCC will allow broadcasters and MVPDs to satisfy Equal Employment Opportunity requirements with only online job postings, the full commission said in a declaratory ruling Friday. "We find that circumstances have changed such that we should now consider online…
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dissemination of information about a full time job vacancy as potentially sufficient to widely disseminate information about that vacancy," said the ruling. The rule change was a response to a 2016 petition by broadcasters Sun Valley Radio and Canyon Media, arguing that online sources were the most commonly used to search for jobs, and FCC rules requiring the use of print media were outdated. Numerous broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, and Commissioner Mike O'Rielly supported the change, and broadcasters had told us they expected that the FCC might approve the rule prior to the 2017 NAB Show as a "gift" to the industry. MMTC tempered its support for the rule change, with requests that a final rulemaking include requirements that postings be easy to find, that broadcasters still maintain relationships with sources of potential applicants, and that records of postings be kept. The FCC didn't make those suggestions requirements but recommended that broadcasters follow such procedures. MMTC's procedures will be "an important factor" in evaluations of whether an individual broadcaster's job postings were "widely disseminated," the ruling said.