Texaco Presents Program to Address Discrimination
Texaco Inc., which last month reached the largest settlement in history in a race-discrimination lawsuit, announced a plan Wednesday to diversify its work force and to expand its ventures with minority- and women-owned businesses.
The company referred indirectly to the $176-million settlement in disclosing the broad range of hiring, training and vendor initiatives, saying the 40-day review headed by its chairman, Peter I. Bijur, was a result of “events over the past six weeks.”
The plan brought a swift and positive response from civil rights leaders, who called for an end to a consumer boycott and plans for a stock divestiture. The boycott had little, if any, effect on the company’s sales, but it was a public relations nightmare for Texaco.
The internal initiatives for Texaco’s work force will be evaluated by a task force to be created as part of the settlement. The panel of experts will oversee all of the company’s employee relations programs, and was the biggest sticking point between the black plaintiffs and the company in settling the suit.
The settlement is awaiting court approval, and members of the task force have not yet been appointed.
The company said it has set goals to increase the percentage of female and minority employees by the end of 2000, following an internal review of its policies. It plans to increase the percentage of all minorities from 23% to 29%, African Americans from 9% to 13% and women from 32% to 35%.
In its management ranks, the company’s goal is to increase the number of women from 11.7% to 25%, African Americans from 4.3% to 6.6% and other minorities from 7.4% to 9.2%.
“The goals of our program were set by determining what the demographics of Texaco’s work force are likely to be in the year 2000,” Bijur said. “And, to be clear, these are goals--they are not quotas. . . . We will continue to hire the best-qualified candidates for all positions, based on merit and capability.”
Harris Sussman, president of Workways Consulting in Cambridge, Mass., said he was surprised at both the goals and the timetable Texaco has set. An overall increase of 3% in female workers and 4% in African Americans in four years is extremely ambitious, he said. He added that it is most unusual for a companywide review to be produced in a matter of weeks without any outside help.
“If they can make up in four years what they haven’t accomplished in 30, everyone is going to want to know how they did it,” Sussman said, noting that some experts believe it takes a decade or more to address such a comprehensive plan.
“Numbers alone do not mean that the corporate culture will change,” Sussman said. “If the culture is hostile, the numbers won’t stay high because people will leave.”
To expand diversity among its business partners, the company proposes to increase its relationships with minority- and women-owned businesses from services and contracts valued at $135 million this year to $200 million a year. It said it will double the number of women- and minority-owned wholesalers--those who own 13 or more Texaco service stations -- and work to triple African American-owned retail outlets within five years.
