FCC Should Expand Small Station Exemption From EEO Rules, Say 82 Broadcasters
Expand the exemption from equal employment opportunity obligations for small stations to include those with 50 full-time employees or fewer, asked an early joint filing from 82 broadcasters posted in FCC docket 19-197 Friday. The exemption now is stations with…
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five or fewer FTEs. EEO rules are intended for larger broadcasters with human resource departments, the outlets said. Setting the threshold at 50 is more in line with human resources practices in other industries, they said. “This is a plaintive plea by smaller broadcasters for relief from these ongoing, pervasive, time-consuming, and resource-gobbling paper-work and documentation requirement.” They want the FCC to cease calculating broadcaster employment units by market and instead count each station group as one entity. This will reduce paperwork burdens, the joint filing said: “Since the FCC eliminated its main studio rule, using local market based employment units for EEO metrics is an anachronism.” Every licensed radio station should be required to post full time jobs on employment websites, the filing said. Signatories included Heartland Communications, Cromwell Group, Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting and East Arkansas Broadcasters.