| Word | Description |
| Race | Race is a division of humankind with certain distinguishing characteristics in common which indicate distinctive origins. |
| Race-norming | The practice of adjusting employment test scores to compensate for racial differences. |
| Raiding | A union's attempt to enroll workers belonging to, or represented by, another union. |
| Railway Labor Act of 1926 (RLA) | A law that regulates labor relations in the railway and airlines industries, guaranteeing workers in these industries the right to form a union and bargain collectively. |
| Random testing | Drug and alcohol tests administered by an employer that selects employees to be tested on a random basis. |
| Rank order | A rating method where the performance of a group, process or product is arranged in a particular order, such as highest to lowest. |
| Ratification | The formal approval of a newly negotiated agreement by vote of affected union members. |
| Real wages | A term referring to the value of current wages as compared to the value of the same wages during a specific period of time in the past. |
| Reasonable accommodation | Modifying or adjusting a job process or a work environment to better enable a qualified individual with a disability to be considered for or perform the essential functions of a job. |
| Reasonable Cause | EEOC's determination of reasonable cause to believe that discrimination occurred based upon evidence obtained in investigation. Reasonable cause determinations are generally followed by efforts to conciliate the discriminatory issues which gave rise to the initial charge. NOTE: Some reasonable cause findings are resolved through negotiated settlements, withdrawals with benefits, and other types of resolutions, which are not characterized as either successful or unsuccessful conciliations. |
| Reasonable person standard | A standard used in sexual harassment suits, referring to conduct or behavior so offensive in nature that any reasonable person, regardless of sex, would agree the conduct or behavior should be illegal. |
| Reasonable Recruitment Area | The area from which the contractor usually seeks or reasonably could seek workers for a particular job group. (See Section 2G04(c).) |
| Reasonable suspicion testing | A drug or alcohol test administered to an employee due to a performance or policy infraction or poor or erratic behavior. |
| Reassignment | Transferring individuals to alternative positions where their talents or skills may be best utilized to their own or the organization’s benefit or where they are better able to perform the job in accordance with required standards. |
| Recall | The process or action by which workers are returned to active employment from layoff. |
| Reciprocal review | An appraisal method where the subordinate and the manager are evaluated by each other based on agreed-upon performance criteria. |
| Reciprocity | A relationship between states or other taxing jurisdictions whereby privileges granted by one are returned by the other under a reciprocal agreement. |
| Recognition | An acknowledgement of an employee’s exceptional performance or achievements expressed in the form of praise, commendation or gratitude. |
| Recognition picketing | The process of picketing as a means to assert pressure or coerce an employer to recognize a union as a bargaining agent for the employees. |
| Recordable illness/injury | All occupational injuries and illnesses that require more than basic first aid treatment, or deaths that occurred in the workplace. |
| Recruiting Source | Any person, organization or agency used to refer or provide workers for employment. |
| Recruitment | The practice of soliciting and actively seeking applicants to fill recently vacated or newly created positions using a variety of methods (i.e., internal job postings, advertising in newspapers or electronic job boards/sites, utilizing search firms, or listing position with trade and professional associations, etc). |
| Red circle rate | A pay rate that is above the maximum range assigned to the job grade. Employees are usually not eligible for additional pay increases until the range maximums exceed the individual pay rate. |
| Redeployment | The reassignment of employees to other departments or functions as an alternative to laying them off. |
| Reduction in force | An involuntary separation of an employee or groups of employees due to economic pressures, lack of work, organizational changes or other reasons of business necessity that require a reduction in staff. |
| Reengineering | The redesigning of business and work processes, policies or organizational structure. |
| Reference checking | The process of verifying information supplied by applicants on an application or resume. |
| Regional bargaining | A form of multiemployer bargaining whereby bargaining takes place between a union and the representatives of several employers in a particular industry and region. |
| Regression analysis | A statistical measure used to discover relationships between variables such as performance ratings and promotions. |
| Regular full/part-time employee | An individual who has been hired by an employer to work a predetermined amount of hours per week in a position/appointment of indefinite duratio |
| Rehabilitation Act of 1973 | A federal statute requiring federal agencies to ensure that electronic and information technology systems are accessible to individuals with disabilities when their jobs require the use of electronic or information technology systems. |
| Rehire | To reengage a formerly employed worker after a complete break in employment status. Compare with "Recall." |
| Reinforcement | The practice of providing positive feedback to an individual or groups of individuals after completion of a particular project or achievement of a particular goal. |
| Release agreement | A type of legal written document executed by an employer and signed by an employee whereby the employee relinquishes certain rights in exchange for some form of consideration, such as a benefit the employee would not have otherwise received had he or she not been discharged. |
| Reliability | A measure of the ability of a test or other appraisal instrument to evaluate what is being measured on a consistent basis. |
| Religion | Includes all aspects of religious observance and practice and religious beliefs. |
| Religious Accommodation | Requirement of a contractor to accommodate sincere religious observances and practices of an employee or prospective employee unless the contractor can demonstrate that it is unable to do so without undue hardship on the conduct of its business. See 41 CFR 60-50.3. Anything requiring more than a de minimis cost has been held by the Supreme Court to constitute "undue hardship" in this context. |
| Relocation assistance | A type of benefit offered to employees who accept work assignments in new locations. Typically takes the form of assistance with moving costs, travel expenses, temporary lodging and home-buying/selling. |
| Remedial counseling | A type of employee counseling used to correct performance or behavior-related issues. |
| Remedial order | An order of an administrative agency, court, or arbitrator to correct a defect; relief or cure. |
| Remedial training | Describes a method of teaching intended to help people who have basic skills deficiencies, such reading or writing. |
| Remediation | A strategy designed to conquer a deficiency in an employee’s behavior, performance or skills. |
| Remote employees | Employees who work off company premises and are removed from their supervisors or mangers. |
| Remote managers | A manager who supervises employees who perform their work at a site other then the employer’s premises. |
| Reopening clause | A provision in a collective bargaining agreement stating the time or the circumstances under which negotiations can be requested prior to the expiration of the contract. |
| Repatriate | The process of returning to the United States after being placed on a long-term international assignment. |
| Representation issues | Refers to the issues related to how a union gains or loses exclusive recognition for a bargaining unit, the unit status of employees and determining whether a proposed unit of employees is appropriate for exclusive recognition. |
| Representation election | A secret-ballot election to determine whether the employees in an appropriate unit shall have a union as their exclusive representative. |
| Representation proceeding | A procedure for the purpose of determining the majority representative of employees in an appropriate collective bargaining unit. |
| Representational functions | Activities performed by union representatives on behalf of the employees for whom the union is the exclusive representative regarding conditions and terms of employment. |
| Reprimand | An oral or written reproach given to an employee as part of disciplinary action. |
| Repudiation of agreement | The framework developed by the FLRA to determine whether a breach of the agreement was clear and patent and whether the provision breached went to the heart of the agreement. |
| Request for proposal (RFP) | A document an organization sends to a vendor inviting the vendor to submit a bid for a product or service. |
| Requisite Skills | Those basic skills needed to perform a job satisfactorily. |
| Resident alien | A resident alien is a lawful permanent resident of the United States at any time if he or she has been given the privilege, according to the immigration laws, of residing permanently as an immigrant. This status usually exists if the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued a green card. |
| Resolution | The disposition of a disagreement or grievance through alternative dispute resolution methods. |
| Restrictive covenant | A contract clause requiring executives or other highly skilled employees to refrain from seeking and obtaining employment with competitor organizations in a specific geographical region and for a specified period of time. |
| Restructuring | Changing an organizational structure in order to make it more efficient and cost effective. |
| Resume | A written document outlining an individual’s work experience, skills, educational background, accomplishments and other related information supporting his or her career goal. |
| Retaliatory discharge | A form of discriminatory discharge that occurs when an employer dismisses an employee as retaliation against the employee for a specific action. |
| Retention bonus | An incentive payment used to entice employees from leaving the organization. Typically employees are asked to sign an agreement stating they will remain employed for a specific duration or until the completion of a particular task or project in order to be eligible for the bonus. |
| Retiree skill bank | A pool of retired former employees who are rehired on a temporary or contractual basis. |
| Retirement plan | A written qualified or nonqualified benefit plan, funded by employer and employee contributions, that provides retirement income benefits for employees. |
| Retraining | Training that is provided for a certain job to enable an employee to acquire the necessary skills to work with new processes, procedures or equipment. |
| Retroactive pay | Refers to a deferred wage payment for work done previously at a lower rate of pay. |
| Return on investment (ROI) | A ratio of the benefit or profit derived from a specific investment, compared with the cost of the investment itself. |
| Reverse discrimination | Employment policies or practices that result in discriminatory treatment against applicants or employees who are not minorities or members of a disadvantaged group. |
| Reward system | A formal or informal program used to recognize individual employee achievements, such as accomplishment of goals or projects or submission of creative ideas. |
| Right of Response | The contractor's right to produce a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its actions once OFCCP has made a prima facie showing of discrimination. |
| Right- to- work law | A state law preventing labor-management agreements requiring an individual to join a union as a condition of employment. |
| Right-to-know | An OSHA standard providing workers with protection from hazardous substances in the workplace by requiring employers to keep employees informed of any hazardous substances that they may be working with, as well as the hazards and symptoms associated with the substance. |
| Right-to-sue letter | A letter issued by the EEOC, once a charge has been recorded and processed, informing individuals who filed the charge that they have the right to further pursue their charges in a federal or state court. |
| Right-to-work | A state law preventing labor-management agreements requiring an individual to join a union as a condition of employment. |
| Rightful Place | The job, seniority level (if applicable), salary level, etc. that a discriminatee would now hold had there been no discrimination. |
| Rights arbitration | Also referred to as grievance arbitration or mediation, it is a proactive, voluntary process, which utilizes an arbitrator to assist and issue a binding resolution of grievances over the application or interpretation of a collective bargaining agreement. |
| Rights dispute | A disagreement regarding the application or understanding of the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. |
| Rightsizing | An approach to reducing staff, whereby jobs are prioritized in order to identify and eliminate unnecessary work. This method uses a selection criteria based on individual jobs, rather than people, in order to avoid possibly laying off the wrong employees. |
| Risk management | The use of insurance and other strategies in an effort to minimize an organization’s exposure to liability in the event a loss or injury occurs. |
| Role playing | A training method in which each participant purposely acts out or assumes a particular character or role. |
| Rolling year | Under FMLA regulations, a rolling year is defined as a 12-month period measured backward from the date an employee first uses leave. |
| Rotational training | A training method where employees are rotated among a variety of different jobs, departments or company functions for a certain period of time. |
| Runaway shop | The tactic of transferring a plant to an alternative location, usually another city, in order to damage union effectiveness and escape bargaining duties. |
| Rural sourcing | An outsourcing method that is based on transferring jobs away from higher cost urban areas to lower cost rural areas. |