Reagan Gets Plan to Drop Job Bias Rule : Move Would Repeal Contractors’ Quotas on Federal Projects

President Reagan is considering a proposed executive order that would eliminate a federal requirement that government contractors set goals for hiring minorities and women, sources say.

About 23 million people at 73,000 private work places would be affected by the executive order, which could replace one signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

If the order becomes law, a government contractor no longer will be required to set numerical quotas, goals or ratios to remedy discrimination.

Under the draft document obtained today by United Press International from non-governmental sources, the government would determine compliance by a company’s “demonstrated non-discriminatory treatment of its employees and potential employees.”

Different Versions

Justice Department spokesman Patrick Korten said at least half a dozen versions of the new executive order have been prepared in the long-running debate within the Administration over affirmative action.

“This particular order has been the subject of debate for a very long time,” Korten said, and the version is “not ready for decision at the top yet.”

Conceptually, however, he said, “there’s no secret Reagan and (Atty. Gen. Edwin) Meese think quotas are not the way to deal with past or present discrimination.”

Richard Seymour, director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the plan would “pretty much mean the end of the entire program. . . . It’s a more extreme step than any they’ve taken so far.

“The draft would amend the present non-discrimination requirements for government contractors by removing all their substance and leaving only window dressing in place of the substance,” he said.

Statistical Evidence

The order, Seymour said, would eliminate statistical proof of race or sex bias.

“The only situations covered would be direct proof of intentional discrimination,” Seymour said. “It’s very rare that a memo surfaces that says, ‘We’re not going to hire blacks,’ or a sign in the window says, ‘No women allowed.’ ”

Under the present executive order, government contractors must analyze their employment practices and--where the facts show the need for such relief--develop goals and timetables to increase the rate at which women and minorities are hired.

Seymour noted that the Supreme Court upheld the plans in 1979 and that Congress recognized the validity of the plans in 1972, when it voted down proposals to abolish the plans.