PROCEDURES CONCERNING INSENSITIVE PRACTICES

PROCEDURES CONCERNING INSENSITIVE PRACTICES When people enter the Navy, they have their own feelings, attitudes, prejudices, and ideas based on their individual personal backgrounds. An insensitive practice is behavior that is prejudicial to another person because of that person’s race, religion, creed, color, sex, or national origin. To ensure teamwork and to fulfill the Navy’s mission, individuals must put aside their personal feelings, attitudes, prejudices, and ideas about other people and how they act around others. Commanding officers take proper action to correct insensitive practices. If a person takes part in insensitive practices, that person receives counseling about their responsibilities with regard to equal treatment. If such counseling is not effective or if further action is warranted, personnel may receive administrative or disciplinary action or both. DUTY ASSIGNMENTS The unfair assignment of general administrative and support duties (food service, compartment cleaning, and work details) outside the normal requirements of a rating frequently lowers morale. It also weakens the efficiency and overall effectiveness of a command. Based on Navy policy, supervisors should assign work not included in a specific rating on a fair, rotational basis. They should make such assignments without regard to race, creed, color, sex, age, or national origin. Although supervisors may consider the seniority of personnel in detailing such duties, they must make positive efforts to ensure fair treatment. Assignment to duty on ships or stations should also comply with the Navy’s equal opportunity goals. The repeal of the combat exclusion law potentially opens all classes of surface ships to women. The Naval Construction Force, or Seabees, has also received women in sea duty construction battalions. All construction battalions are now open to women, opening more than 4,000 seagoing billets to women. The expanded opportunity for women in the Navy ensures a more equitable rotation between sea and shore duty for all Sailors and provides career paths for women that are consistent with those of their male counterparts. PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND ADVANCEMENT The Navy expects everyone who enters the naval service to increase his/her knowledge and skills. Your command will provide the necessary training so you can develop a skill and properly prepare yourself for advancement. Although advancement is an individual effort, the command has the responsibility to provide you with an equal opportunity for training and advancement. How far you advance depends primarily on your own initiative, capabilities, and qualifications. The Department of the Navy sets the requirements for advancement for paygrades E-1 through E-9. To advance to E-4 through E-7, Sailors must pass an advancement-in-rate exam. However, just meeting all the requirements does not guarantee advancement. Only the most qualified will be advanced, and they will be advanced only if vacancies exist for that paygrade. Improving yourself, your skills, and your education increases your chance for advancement. MILITARY JUSTICE To assure equal justice and treatment, your command will continuously review charges, dismissed cases, issued warnings, and all nonjudicial punishment procedures. Such reviews detect racial, religious, ethnic, cultural, or sexual bias affecting either the accusation or the punishment phase of military justice. SERVICE AND RECREATIONAL FACILITIES Service and recreational facilities must meet the needs of all segments of the Navy community. Commands must pay special attention to the possibility of discriminatory practices in the operation of exchanges, commissaries, service clubs, and recreational facilities. Segregation, lack of tolerance of cultural preferences, or discriminatory practices in command facilities are inconsistent with equal opportunity. Navy exchange facilities provide a variety of products. These products include items purchased by minority and female personnel and dependents, such as special categories of cosmetics, books, magazines, and 1-15 Student Notes: