Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1996
Lab to address OFCCP preliminary findings on discrimination
complaints
The Lab received Tuesday from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs its Notice of Results of Investigation into discrimination complaints that were filed by 14 former employees subject to last year's involuntary reduction in force. OFCCP's report states that "[o]ur investigation of the Reduction-In-Force indicates that there was disparate treatment of Hispanics during the RIF."
Lab officials emphasize that the NORI describes OFCCP's preliminary findings with respect to these discrimination complaints. They further maintain that there was no intentional discrimination on the part of the Lab during the RIF, and OFCCP confirmed at its exit conference with the Lab that no intentional discrimination had occurred.
Significantly, OFCCP found each of the 14 complainants' individual allegations of discrimination (other than allegations involving the 1995 RIF) to be untimely and/or without merit.
The NORI purports to state the Lab's position with regard to the 14 complaints and the RIF in general, but in fact the Lab has not yet been given the opportunity to explain fully to OFCCP its position concerning the RIF. Usually, OFCCP issues its report and then contractors, like the Lab, respond to the specific facts OFCCP believes it has found. Receipt of the NORI on Tuesday was the Lab's first chance to know of the detailed facts OFCCP believes it has found and to begin preparing a response.
The NORI reveals OFCCP does not have an accurate understanding of the manner in which the Lab designed and implemented the RIF. The Lab's response will explain the RIF process and set forth the Lab's position.
Lab officials disagree with both the statistical methods and statistical results OFCCP cites in the NORI. OFCCP relied upon gerrymandered statistical techniques not recognized by the statistical community. The Lab's statistical analyses are conventional in nature and more accurately evaluate the impact of the RIF, officials said; these statistics demonstrate that the RIF did not have an unlawful adverse impact on Hispanics.
Lab officials are confident that after OFCCP receives the response to the NORI, including its detailed statistical analyses, OFCCP will conclude the Laboratory did not conduct its RIF in a discriminatory manner.
Director
names new acting head of Diversity Office
Director Sig Hecker has asked Mick Trujillo to serve as acting director
of the Diversity Office until a permanent director is selected. Trujillo
will replace the current acting director, Pete Miller, as of
Oct. 21.
Lab helping produce instructional material on hantavirus
in Navajo language
When the hantavirus outbreak occurred in the southwestern United States
in May 1993, the medical world was quick to diagnose the illness and establish
how it is contracted.
Three years later, doctors and other researchers, including at the Laboratory, continue to study the hantavirus illness.
In 1994, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration wanted to do a project that would benefit Native Americans around the country. So NASA's Life and Biomedical Sciences and Applications Division contacted Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, which in turn contacted the Lab; NASA gave the Department of Energy $60,000 for the project. Because the Laboratory has a long history of working with Native American populations, and through its working relationship with Argonne, the Lab today is helping Navajo educators produce instructional material on the hantavirus illness in the native Navajo language.
But the partnerships don't end there, said Dolores Jacobs of Science Education and Outreach (HR-SEO). She was aware of a Public Broadcasting Service "New Explorers" video series that included a documentary on hantavirus called "On the Trail of a Killer Virus." Argonne also had produced a teacher's guide in English on the illness called "On the Trail," which closely followed the video documentary. The guide contains classroom activities for teachers to use. Jacobs selected the video and teacher's guide as most appropriate to be translated into Navajo, she said.
The Lab hopes to have the translation project completed in time to pilot in Navajo schools next spring, said Jacobs. The Lab and Argonne also hope to turn information based on Lab research on the hantavirus illness into additional classroom material, she added.
"The Laboratory is still very interested in this research and so it makes sense to do this type of translation project," Jacobs said. "Not only is it a literacy project whereby students actually learn about the topic and the medical and scientific aspects of the hantavirus, but they'll also enhance their capability of speaking their native language. The loss of this capability is a grave concern to Native Americans."
The hantavirus illness was believed to have been first identified in South Korea. It is spread by contact with rodent urine and feces and causes flu-like symptoms and sometimes fatal lung or kidney disease.
The virus is normally found only in rodents, especially deer mice. People can contract hantavirus illness when they breathe in the virus that is found in the urine, saliva or droppings or infected rodents. It may also be possible to catch the virus by eating or drinking food or water soiled by rodents.
Last month, teachers and other specialists from the Navajo Nation were at the Lab for a workshop on how to use Hyperstudio authoring software. The software, Jacobs explained, will allow the information on hantavirus to be translated in stacks, "like a bunch of index cards" with text, voice and graphics embedded. The translated product can be accessed on a desktop computer, she said.
Participants in the workshop here were selected as a team of translators after the Lab ran an advertisement in the Gallup Independent and Window Rock, Ariz., newspapers, said Jacobs. A medical translator at Gallup Medical Center, an independent business person, two teachers and a consultant who is a linguist by profession at Santa Monica College in California form the team that will complete the project.
There have been several additional meetings in Gallup to continue working on the project.
When all is said and done, the Lab hopes to produce a CD-ROM in Hyperstudio, printed text and a version of the PBS video narrated in Navajo.
The collaborative effort has other benefits besides these in the classroom, Jacobs added. She said the project exposes the Navajo Nation educators to potential careers in the health field, citing continued interest in the hantavirus disease by the National Institutes of Health, local medical centers, the federal Centers for Disease Control and the Lab.
Reminder from the Dependent Care
Subcommittee
A complete summary of the recently completed Dependent
CareSurvey now is online. For more information about the online survey,
or if you would like to participate in future talks on dependent care, contact
Linda Anderman at 5-9196, Janie Enter at 5-0756 or Diane
Albert at 5-2266.
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