The big talent agencies violate the civil rights laws

[RogerOThornhill]

My understanding about the original post is this is about a job position, not about a screenplay.

[tucsonray]

Originally Posted by NYNEX

I was looking around at the EEOC, the federal agency that enforces civil rights laws, and I found something interesting.

http://www.eeoc.gov/

Any employer in ANY industry that hires more than 15 people is bound by the EEOC laws. And under said laws, a company cannot have a recruitment process that disproportionately excludes people on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability.

Unfortunately, the insane requirement that the big agencies have towards people getting industry referral totally disproprotionately blocks out people across all categories, and is illegal.

So along those lines, I filed a complaint, the EEOC took it, and is investigating a couple of the big three. If any of you have your own grievances, feel free to contact the EEOC and let's push to reform the industry. These people are not goods, and they have to follow the law just like any other industry.

Sorry to say but my day job is as a lawyer - there, I said it... now, as to this 'complaint'... the EEOC investigates every complaint so the fact that they took yours is akin to having a reply accepted to be posted on Done Deal...

That said, it's hard, at least for me, to tell what the basis for your complaint is. Unless you feel you are being discriminated against for or retaliated against in an employment situation (and discrimination is very defined to fit into some specific categories) then I would not hold out much hope...

Still, I don't know what this matter is about but IMHO I see no upside in trying to stick it to these agencies.

[seh]

Originally Posted by RogerOThornhill

My understanding about the original post is this is about a job position, not about a screenplay.

Upon rereading the post, I think you might be right. If so, my apologies to the OP for thinking this was about not getting repped.

However, if the OP WAS looking for a job and feels he was discriminated against because he did not have access to the "industry insiders" required to get a referral... it still seems pretty ludicrous to me.

[mrjonesprods]

IMO, this post was not about trying to land a job at one of the big three. Those places don't hire based on referrals. They all have HR departments. William Morris even lists what jobs are currently available on their website and how to apply for it. And most of the big boys list on their website information about their agent training program.

William Morris (for example) says on their website, "*Qualified applicants are considered for positions without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, legally protected medical condition, family care status, marital status, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law."

I think the OP was definitely talking about having his script read.

[odocoileus]

NYNEX is Justino, and John Doe, too.

In The Mailroom, an oral history of Hwd talent agencies, some of the agency folks talk about the lengths the agencies went to to keep aspiring black agents out.

That time has passed, though, and the big agencies typically have a black agent or two, enough to protect them from discrimination lawsuits. There also have to be at least a few minority faces around to keep the major black talent happy. While there are certainly individual decision makers who refuse to hire/work with blacks, I don't see any way to tag a whole agency.

As a practical matter, you can get away with just about any discrimination you want as long as you're careful to cover your tracks and everyone keeps their mouths shut. In the past, people have been caught on speaker phone saying, "Don't send me any blacks!" or "Don't make my client work with a nigger!" but those people were from an older generation which is dying out now. Younger people are much more sophisticated, and discrimination is almost impossible to prove unless you can catch somebody posting Klan literature on the bulletin board. (Which does happen in middle America, but not in Hollywood, for obvious reasons. )

[NYNEX]

Originally Posted by odocoileus

but those people were from an older generation which is dying out now. Younger people are much more sophisticated, and discrimination is almost impossible to prove unless you can catch somebody posting Klan literature on the bulletin board. (Which does happen in middle America, but not in Hollywood, for obvious reasons. )

Not really true. When you apply to companies for work, they collect the DATA of the race of their applicats, so they can say they have an open recruitment process.

I was talking about the process of getting read. This information is taken from the EEOC website.

http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/race-color.html#VIA
A. RECRUITING

Who ultimately receives employment opportunities is highly dependent on how and where the employer looks for candidates. Accordingly, Title VII forbids not only recruitment practices that purposefully discriminate on the basis of race but also practices that disproportionately limit employment opportunities based on race and are not related to job requirements or business needs.(80) For example, recruiting from racially segregated sources, such as certain neighborhoods, schools, religious institutions, and social networks, leads to hiring that simply replicates societal patterns of racial segregation.
1. Job Advertisements and Employment Agencies

Title VII specifically forbids job advertisements based on race, color, and other protected traits.(81) The statute also prohibits discrimination by employment agencies.(82) If an employer asks an employee-referral agency or search firm not to refer or search for candidates of a particular race, both the employer that made the request and the employment agency that honored it would be liable.(83)
2. Word-of-Mouth Referrals

While word-of-mouth recruiting in a racially diverse workforce can be an effective way to promote diversity, the same method of recruiting in a non-diverse workforce is a barrier to equal employment opportunity if it does not create applicant pools that reflect the diversity in the qualified labor market.(84) Similarly, unions that are not racially diverse should avoid relying solely on member referrals as the source of new members.(85)
3. Homogeneous Recruitment Sources

Title VII is violated by recruiting persons only from largely homogeneous sources if the recruitment practice has a racial purpose, or if it has a significant racial impact and cannot be justified as job related and consistent with business necessity. For example, Title VII might be violated if a municipal employer with an overwhelmingly White population and workforce abuts a major city with an overwhelmingly Black population, but the municipality only hires its own residents and refuses to advertise its jobs in newspapers that circulate in the abutting major city.(86) As another example, Title VII might be violated if a statistically significant racial disparity results from recruiting persons exclusively from predominantly White schools, or exclusively from predominantly Black schools, when it would be feasible to recruit qualified students from a range of sources. More investigation would be needed to determine whether a racial motivation exists, or whether the employer’s recruitment practices can be justified as job related and consistent with business necessity.
4. Discriminatory Screening of Recruits

The process of screening or culling recruits presents another opportunity for discrimination. Race obviously cannot be used as a screening criterion. Nor may employers use a screening criterion that has a significantly disparate racial impact unless it is proven to be job related and consistent with business necessity.



So since the EEOC says that, I gather that requirement screenwriters to get industry referrals means that you substantially exclude people on the basis of the protected EEOC categories.

For all intents and purposes, a talent agency is a specialized employment agency, and they are still bound by the EEOC laws.

The issue here is not what you guys think is good, or right or wrong. The issue is whether requiring industry referrals is ILLEGAL under those ABOVE guidelines, taken from the EEOC website's office.

As for them simply taken my complaint, well, let's just say I personally have known people who found justice by complaining to administrative federal agencies. It happens more often than some of you know.

[odocoileus]

Unfortunately, the insane requirement that the big agencies have towards people getting industry referral totally disproprotionately blocks out people across all categories, and is illegal.

On second glance, it does look like this is about getting read. I suspect the courts are less interested in who gets read as opposed to who gets repped. When it comes to who gets repped, talent agencies are largely exempt from disparate impact requirements. They can represent whom they like, as long as they aren't explicitly discriminatory. Plus all the big agencies have substantial numbers of black actors and musicians on their talent rosters. Asians and Latinos, not so much.

[NYNEX]

Originally Posted by odocoileus

On second glance, it does look like this is about getting read. I suspect the courts are less interested in who gets read as opposed to who gets repped. When it comes to who gets repped, talent agencies are largely exempt from disparate impact requirements. They can represent whom they like, as long as they aren't explicitly discriminatory. Plus all the big agencies have substantial numbers of black actors and musicians on their talent rosters. Asians and Latinos, not so much.

Oh, no doubt there are major black actors out there. But as for the screenwriters?

And if the agencies are not repping Asians and Latinos so much, for whatever reason, then that is DISCRIMINATORY towards Asians and Latinos. A lot of actors in those categories have felt that they were locked out of roles in the past, because of what they are.

And yes, this is about getting read, not about getting repped. Of course, an agency can decide that they don't like ones work. However, a number of people will not get the chance, because of the no unsolicted communications. For a read, you largely need an industry referral, and yes, that is discriminatory and it favors the children of Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. Because of their birth, these people are going to be FAVORED over others interms of getting READ (easy to get daddy to refer you). And everyone here knows very well that is basically locks out people on protected categories, ESPECIALLY if you were Asian or Latino.

And by the way, I'm sure you can find ONE or TWO working Asian or Latino screenwriters. However, the issue is on whether these practices cause certain groups of people to end up not even getting repped as screenwriters, all because of what they were born as.

[odocoileus]

Nor may employers use a screening criterion that has a significantly disparate racial impact unless it is proven to be job related and consistent with business necessity.

An agency's process for evaluating talent is precisely both job related and business necessity. So the agencies would be exempt from the disparate impact requirement.

This issue has come up before regarding on camera talent, and the agencies have an exemption in that area. They can specify, as they have to for business reasons, that they want blondes under 25, middle aged Asian men, cute black kids, whatever their requirements.

As was pointed out up thread, the agency is the employee of the writer, for legal purposes, so the law works differently in this case.

[seh]

In both cases where I landed a manager, they read the script, then took me on. They didn't hear me speak until after they decided to rep me.

They had no idea what my ethnic background was.

If you write a solid script that makes people think they will make money off of you, you could be pink and green and writing from a jail cell or in a cave in Kabul. They will still take you on.

It's about the script. I'd work more on my writing and less on lawsuits if I were you.

Look within.