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Southwest Distances Itself from DEI Hiring Programs
Southwest Airlines is backing away from its diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring programs in response to legal action from a conservative organization.
The Department of Labor sent a letter to the conservative group America First Legal on Tuesday after the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and Southwest held an informal conference to address the airline’s DEI hiring practices and America First Legal’s request for an investigation into alleged violations of federal contracting law.
The letter confirmed that Southwest is aware of OFCCP regulations that prevent hiring preferences or quotas. Southwest agreed that its hiring benchmarks were not quotas, rather they were metrics to measure representation in its existing workforce.
“Americans have had enough of corporations’ overt discrimination under the guise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It is unacceptable that corporations are so openly using everyday Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to meet their unlawful race and sex quotas to achieve some ‘correct’ amount of diversity and representation,” said America First Legal counsel Will Scolinos
The complaint cites a Southwest corporate report from 2022 that touted its DEI hiring programs and the company’s demographic shifts. In 2022, 63 percent of Southwest’s 18,000 hires came from racially diverse backgrounds and 51 percent were women, boosting the airline’s racial and gender diversity.
According to America First Legal, the OFCCP investigation discovered a violation of anti-discrimination rules for government contractors, and a conference was held to sort out the issue.
“Southwest Airlines will continue to recruit, hire, and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. During an informal conference on Dec. 2, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) reiterated that Southwest should continue to abide by the regulations. OFCCP made no determination of any violations by the airline,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement.
