47 U.S.C. § 554 — Equal employment opportunity

(a) This section applies to any corporation, partnership, association, joint-stock company, or trust that mainly manages or operates a cable system. (b) Each covered entity must provide equal employment opportunity. It may not discriminate in employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, or sex. (c) Each covered entity must establish, maintain, and carry out an ongoing program of specific practices to ensure equal opportunity in every part of its employment policies and practices. The program must: (1) assign responsibility at every management level for applying and enforcing equal opportunity and create a way to review and control managers’ and supervisors’ performance; (2) tell employees and recognized employee organizations about the policy and program and seek their cooperation; (3) tell sources of qualified applicants about the policy, program, and job needs without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, or sex, and continuously seek their help recruiting; (4) continuously work to remove every form of prejudice or discrimination based on those characteristics from personnel policies, practices, and working conditions; and (5) continuously review job structure and employment practices and adopt recruitment, training, job-design, and other measures needed to give people a genuine equal opportunity to participate fully in every organizational unit, occupation, and responsibility level. (d)(1) Within 270 days after enactment of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, and after notice and an opportunity for a hearing, the Commission must revise its rules under this section to implement that Act’s amendments. The revisions must promote equal employment opportunity for women and minorities in each job category listed in paragraph (3). (2) The rules must state the terms under which, as far as possible, a covered entity must: (A) distribute its program to applicants, employees, and regular business contacts; (B) use minority organizations, women’s organizations, media, educational institutions, and other possible sources of minority and female applicants for referrals when jobs are available; (C) compare its employment profile and job turnover with the availability of minorities and women in its franchise area; (D) try to promote minorities and women to positions with greater responsibility; (E) encourage minority and female entrepreneurs to do business with all parts of its operation; and (F) analyze recruiting, hiring, promotion, and use of minority and women services and explain implementation difficulties. (3)(A) The rules must require an entity with more than 5 full-time employees to file an annual report with the Commission. The report must identify by race, sex, and job title the number of full-time and part-time employees in: (i) corporate officers; (ii) general manager; (iii) chief technician; (iv) comptroller; (v) general sales manager; (vi) production manager; (vii) managers; (viii) professionals; (ix) technicians; (x) sales personnel; (xi) office and clerical personnel; (xii) skilled craftspersons; (xiii) semiskilled operatives; (xiv) unskilled laborers; and (xv) service workers. (B) The report must use separate Commission forms for full-time and part-time employees. The rules must define categories (i) through (vi) so that only principal decisionmakers with supervisory authority are counted there. Categories (vii) through (xv) must be defined consistently with Commission policies in effect June 1, 1990. The Commission must prescribe how entities calculate and report minorities and women in categories (i) through (x), and minorities and women in categories (i) through (xv), in proportion to all qualified minorities and women in the relevant labor market. The report must include hiring, promotion, and recruitment information needed to evaluate compliance with paragraph (2). It must be open for public inspection at the entity’s central location and every location where at least 5 full-time employees regularly work. Nothing in this subsection prevents the Commission from collecting or continuing to collect statistical or other employment information in any manner it considers appropriate to carry out this section. (4) The Commission may amend the rules as needed to carry out this section, after notice and an opportunity for comment. (e)(1) Each year, the Commission must certify a covered entity as compliant if Commission information, including the report under subsection (d)(3), shows compliance during that year with subsections (b), (c), and (d). (2) Periodically, but at least once every five years, the Commission must investigate each covered entity’s employment practices overall and by job category. It must decide whether the entity complies with subsections (b), (c), and (d), including whether its practices deny or reduce equal employment opportunities for women and minorities. It must also check whether reports under subsection (d)(3) accurately describe employee responsibilities in the reported classifications. (f)(1) If, after notice and a hearing, the Commission finds that an entity willfully or repeatedly failed without good cause to comply, the failure is a substantial failure to comply with this subchapter. Failure to obtain subsection (e) certification alone is not such a failure under this title. “Repeatedly” means 3 or more failures in any 7-year period. (2) A person whom the Commission determines, through a subsection (e) investigation or otherwise, failed to meet or make best efforts to meet this section or its rules owes the United States a $500 forfeiture for each violation. Each day of a continuing violation is a separate offense. A covered entity is not liable for more than 180 days of forfeitures accrued before Commission notice of a possible violation. This limit does not limit forfeitures for violations continuing after notice. The person may also have a cable auxiliary relay service license under this chapter suspended until the failure is corrected. Knowingly making a false statement or submitting documentation known to be false in a certification application violates this section. (3) Paragraphs (3) and (4), and the last two sentences of paragraph (2), of section 503(b) of this title apply to these forfeitures. (4) The Commission must notify the public and appropriate franchising authorities of penalties imposed under this section. (g) Employees or job applicants who believe they were discriminated against under this section or its rules, and any other interested person, may file a written complaint with the Commission. The complainant must sign and swear to it. Rules under subsection (d)(1) must establish a program, using the Commission’s other available authorities, to investigate complaints and violations and enforce this section. (h)(1) “Cable operator” includes an operator of a satellite master antenna television system, including one described in section 522(7)(A), and any multichannel video programming distributor. (2) It does not include an operator whose system serves fewer than 50 subscribers in total. (3) If a cable operator owns a multiple-unit dwelling, this section applies to it only concerning employees mainly engaged in cable telecommunications. (i)(1) This section does not affect a State’s or franchising authority’s power to: (A) establish or enforce requirements consistent with this section, including equal-employment protection; (B) establish or enforce provisions requiring or encouraging a cable operator to do business with enterprises owned or controlled by minority-group members (as defined in section 309(i)(3)(C)(ii)) or whose principal operations are located within the community served by the cable operator; or (C) enforce a franchise requirement in effect when this subchapter became effective. (2) This section’s remedies and enforcement provisions supplement, rather than replace, remedies available under this or any other law. (3) This section applies to any cable operator, whether or not operating pursuant to a franchise, and includes franchises granted before, on, or after October 30, 1984.