Nissan Starts Affirmative Action Program in U.S.

Nissan Motor Corp., which last year agreed to settle federal job bias charges, has quietly instituted an affirmative action program at its Carson headquarters and 11 regional sales and distribution offices, according to a letter sent to employees this week.

In the letter dated Jan. 2 and sent to Nissan Motor’s 2,300 employees nationwide, President Kazutoshi Hagiwara said the affirmative action plan was part of the company’s “strategy to increase our corporate citizenship activities.” The plan, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Times, aims to improve Nissan’s “overall utilization of minorities and females and their distribution throughout the company.”

Japanese companies have come under increasing criticism and legal challenges for their hiring and employment practices in the United States. While Nissan is not the first Japanese firm to institute an affirmative action program (Toyota in Torrance has had one for 16 years), such plans are not common at subsidiaries and branches in the United States. The U.S. government requires only firms which have federal contracts to have affirmative action plans.

“It certainly could set a precedent,” observed Harley Shaiken, professor of work and technology at U.C. San Diego. “The fact that Nissan is doing it will give a great deal of visibility within the industry and limit the excuses of those who don’t. . . . It is a response to the public criticism that they have received over their hiring practices in the recent past. It is an attempt to both address those problems and the public relations damage.”

Richard W. O’Neill, whose Persona Consulting Group in Santa Monica works closely with Japanese companies, said, “Over the last two years, Japanese companies have begun to design affirmative action programs in an effort to become good corporate citizens.”

Last February, Nissan agreed to pay $605,000 and promote dozens of women, blacks, Latinos and older workers to end a 4 1/2-year federal investigation of employment discrimination by the Japanese car maker’s Carson-based sales and marketing organization. The Carson office employs 1,150 of Nissan’s total 2,300 work force.

John T. Weakly, director of human resources and administration at Nissan Motor Corp. in Carson, said the affirmative action program is a voluntary program and not part of the four-year compliance agreement and settlement reached last year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“We feel that having an affirmation action plan is good business. It encourages sound nondiscriminatory employee relations practices in terms of hiring and promotions. It’s the right thing to do. We want to make this part of our ongoing program, whereas the compliance program does have a specific 4-year life.”