Both Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity are workplace programs that strive to decrease discrimination and encourage diversity within and organization. However, the policies differ in other ways. The Equal Employment Opportunity policy prohibits discrimination within the workplace and states that employers assess all job applicants or current employees equally regardless of their physical disability, sex, race, ethnicity, religion or age. Basically this means that everyone has an equal chance based on their credentials and no one can be discriminated against based on their class. Violators can be reported to the EEOC and subject to a lawsuit. Affirmative Action was put in place as a way to address past practices of discrimination
