EEOC proposal draws congressional attention

EEOC proposal draws congressional attention

By Drew Long

cyberFEDS® Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Congress wants answers from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about a proposal to reform the federal EEO system by eliminating agency investigations and hearings before EEOC administrative judges.

One member of Congress has already sent a letter to the EEOC on the proposal, and House aides told cyberFEDS® that two committees plan a joint briefing with the commission on the issue. Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., sent a letter dated Aug. 8, to EEOC Chair Cari Dominguez, which asked for clarification on the proposal and what steps, if any, the commission planned to take to reform the EEO process. A copy of the letter was obtained by cyberFEDS®.

"To be clear regarding my own views, I believe that it may well be possible to improve the procedures for addressing and resolving allegations of federal sector discrimination," Andrews said. "However, I strongly caution the EEOC against attempting to unilaterally develop and/or implement changes."

Andrews, ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations, said he was informed of the proposal by "a number of federal employee unions" that were concerned about the plan. One of those unions was the American Federation of Government Employees, which sent a letter to Dominguez last month in opposition to the plan. Several members of Congress also received the letter.

"Rather than strengthening the rights of federal employees to enforce and protect their civil rights, the EEOC proposal severely weakens the ability of federal employees to enforce their rights," the AFGE wrote. "Further, the EEOC proposal would place federal employees at a severe disadvantage with lesser means of protecting their civil rights than non-federal employees, who have access to discrimination hearings before their state human rights commissions and who have the protection of the EEOC to enforce the civil rights laws against their employers."

The EEOC proposal, if implemented, would model the federal EEO system after the private sector system. In the private sector, an employee can file a civil rights or other discrimination complaint with the EEOC. In turn, the EEOC can investigate the allegation and file a lawsuit against the accused employer. In the public sector, the EEOC cannot file suit against another agency.

As a result, EEO complaints would be decided by the EEOC's Office of Federal Operations or the staff in its field offices. The only opportunity employees or agencies would have to argue the case would be if the worker filed his complaint in District Court.

However, Dominguez has said that there is no firm proposal under review. Rather, a number of different proposals are under consideration, but no decisions have been made on any of them. In a letter sent to EEOC staff and released to the press, Dominguez said that the federal EEO system needed reform and that the commission should draw on the improvements it made to the private sector system.

"We anticipate that a new and improved process will also result in substantial cost-savings, allowing agencies to invest further in proactive prevention, early dispute resolution and strategies to address why so many federal workers feel the need to file more than 23,000 complaints," she said.

Andrews said he realized that the EEOC has not decided on a reform path "at this point," but due to the concerns raised by the AFGE and other unions, he asked the EEOC to respond to the following questions:

How will the EEOC develop recommendations for changing federal sector discrimination procedures? How will federal employees, their representatives, their agencies, and the civil rights community be involved in developing any recommendations for changing federal sector discrimination procedures? If the agency determines that changes are appropriate, how will the agency implement those changes, through legislation, formal rulemaking, or by some other procedure?

Whatever steps are taken, Andrews said it was "incumbent" that all affected parties, "including federal workers," be involved in the process.

An EEOC spokeswoman told cyberFEDS® that any major regulatory reform could not be made without the consent of the full commission and public notice. A commission meeting on the issue has been tentatively scheduled for early September.

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August 9, 2002