1020-V - Equal employment opportunity and minority and women owned business enterprise programs.
* § 1020-v. Equal employment opportunity and minority and women owned business enterprise programs. 1. All contracts entered into by the authority pursuant to this title of whatever nature and all documents soliciting bids or proposals therefor shall contain or make reference to the following provisions: (a) The contractor will not discriminate against employees or applicants for employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, or marital status, and will undertake or continue existing programs of affirmative action to ensure that minority group persons and women are afforded equal opportunity without discrimination. Such programs shall include, but not be limited to, recruitment, employment, job assignment, promotion, upgrading, demotion, transfer, layoff, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation, and selection for training and retraining, including apprenticeship and on-the-job training. (b) At the request of the authority, the contractor shall request each employment agency, labor union, or authorized representative of workers with which it has a collective bargaining or other agreement or understanding and which is involved in the performance of the contract with the authority to furnish a written statement that such employment agency, labor union or representative shall not discriminate because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability or marital status and that such union or representative will cooperate in the implementation of the contractor's obligations hereunder. (c) The contractor shall state, in all solicitations or advertisements for employees placed by or on behalf of the contractor in the performance of the contract with the authority that all qualified applicants will be afforded equal employment opportunity without discrimination because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability or marital status. (d) The contractor will include the provisions of paragraphs (a) through (c) of this subdivision in every subcontract or purchase order in such a manner that such provisions will be binding upon each subcontractor or vendor as to its work in connection with the contract with the authority. 2. The authority shall establish measures, procedures and guidelines to ensure that contractors and subcontractors undertake meaningful programs to employ and promote qualified minority group members and women. Such procedures may require after notice in a bid solicitation, the submission of a minority and women workforce utilization program prior to the award of any contract, or at any time thereafter, and may require the submission of compliance reports relating to the operation and implementation of any workforce utilization program adopted hereunder. The authority may take appropriate action, including the impositions of sanctions for non-compliance to effectuate the provisions of this section and shall be responsible for monitoring compliance with this title. 3. In the performance of projects pursuant to this title, minority and women-owned business enterprises shall be given the opportunity for meaningful participation. The authority shall establish quantifiable standards and measures and procedures to secure meaningful participation and identify those contracts and items of work for which minority and women-owned business enterprises may best bid to actively and affirmatively promote and assist their participation in projects, so as to facilitate the award of a fair share of contracts to such enterprises; provided, however, that nothing in this title shall be construed to limit the ability of the authority to assure that qualifed minority and women-owned business enterprises may participate in theprogram. For purposes hereof, minority business enterprise shall mean any business enterprise which is at least fifty-one per centum owned by, or in the case of a publicly owned business, at least fifty-one per centum of the stock or other voting interest is owned by citizens or permanent resident aliens who are Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, Pacific islander, or Alaskan native, and such ownership interest is real, substantial and continuing and has the authority to independently control the day to day business decisions of the entity for at least one year; and women-owned business enterprise shall mean any business enterprise which is at least fifty-one per centum owned by, or in the case of a publicly owned business, at least fifty-one per centum of the stock to other voting interests of which is owned by citizens or permanent resident aliens who are women, and such ownership interest is real, substantial and continuing and has the authority to independently control the day to day business decisions of the entity for at least one year. The provisions of this subdivision shall not be construed to limit the ability of any minority business enterprise to bid on any contract. 4. In order to implement the requirements and objectives of this section, the authority shall establish procedures to monitor contractors compliance with provisions hereof, provide assistance in obtaining competing qualified minority and women-owned business enterprises to perform contracts proposed to be awarded, impose contractual sanctions for non-compliance, and take other appropriate measures to improve the access of minority and women-owned business enterprises to these contracts. * NB There are 2 § 1020-v's