U.S. Dept. of Justice Seeks Job Applicants with Disabilities

Attention job seekers with disabilities interested in working in the U.S. Department of Justice: This is a good time to apply.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently issued a memo calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hire and promote people with disabilities, with the goal of making DOJ “a model employer with a diverse workforce that includes people with disabilities.”

Although DOJ’s workforce of more than 100,000 people is comprised of many law enforcement positions that have physical requirements, Holder asked managers, supervisors, and hiring officials to work toward a “2 percent hiring goal of people with disabilities.” This includes physical, psychiatric and intellectual disabilities.

The memo doesn’t represent a change in policy, but rather a re-commitment to existing policy issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which encourages the recruitment, hiring, retention, and promotion of persons with disabilities (among others). Holder’s complete memo to the DOJ can be found at the end of this article.

Spread the word

Olegario D. Cantos VII, Trial Attorney, Investigations Unit Disability Rights Section (NYA) Civil Rights Division U.S. Department of Justice

“I strongly advise you to print and retain this memo for your records and to share this important document with everyone in your respective networks who wishes to seek employment in the Justice Department,” urged Olegario D. Cantos VII, a trial lawyer with the DOJ disability rights section and a member of the Attorney General’s Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities. “Job seekers may include a copy of this memo in their applications as a reminder to hiring authorities of the call to action issued by the Attorney General.”

Cantos also directed job seekers to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Schedule A hiring authority, which allows individuals with targeted disabilities to be hired non-competitively into all levels of leadership following certification of disability and job readiness. (For more on this, see the Federal Register document “Excepted Service--Appointment of Persons With Disabilities and Career and Career-Conditional Employment.”)

Most of all, help spread the word, urged Cantos, by posting Holder’s memo “on Web sites, on social networks, on newsgroups, and in online and offline organization and agency publications.”

“Working in the Justice Department has been an amazing and fulfilling experience in more ways than one,” he said. “I would like nothing more than for all individuals with disabilities who have an interest in joining our ranks to make application to available positions for which they qualify.”