The SWA must implement and maintain an affirmative action program for staffing in significant MSFW one-stop centers, and must employ ES staff in a manner facilitating the delivery of employment services tailored to the special needs of MSFWs, including:

The positioning of multilingual staff in offices serving a significant number of Spanish-speaking or ELL participants; and

The hiring of staff members from the MSFW community or members of community-based migrant programs.

The SWA must hire sufficient numbers of qualified, permanent minority staff in significant MSFW ES offices. SWAs will determine whether a “sufficient number” of staff have been hired by conducting a comparison between the characteristics of the staff and the workforce and determining if the composition of the local office staff(s) is representative of the racial and ethnic characteristics of the workforce in the ES office service area(s). SWAs with significant MSFW ES offices, must undertake special efforts to recruit MSFWs and persons from MSFW backgrounds for its staff.

Where qualified minority applicants are not available to be hired as permanent staff, qualified minority part-time, provisional, or temporary staff must be hired in accordance with State merit system procedures, where applicable.

If an ES office does not have a sufficient number of qualified minority staff, the SWA must establish a goal to achieve sufficient staffing at the ES office. The SWA also must establish a reasonable timetable for achieving the staffing goal by hiring or promoting available, qualified staff in the under-represented categories. In establishing timetables, the SWA must consider the vacancies anticipated through expansion, contraction, and turnover in the office(s) and available funds. All affirmative action programs must establish timetables that are designed to achieve the staffing goal no later than 1year after the submission of the Unified or Combined State Plan or Annual Summary, whichever is sooner. Once such goals have been achieved, the SWA must submit a State Plan modification request to the Department with the assurance that the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section have been achieved.

The SMA, Regional Monitor Advocate, or the National Monitor Advocate, as part of his/her regular reviews of SWA compliance with these regulations, must monitor the extent to which the SWA has complied with its affirmative action program.