Developments at the EEOC: On November 19, 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its Performance and Accountability Report for FY2012. The report is available online here.
For its federal sector hearing process, the EEOC reported that it had resolved a total of 7,538 complaints over the prior fiscal year, resulting in the award of over $61,900,000 to successful federal sector complainants. Overall federal sector complaint volume decreased, with a roughly 5% decrease in requests for hearings before EEOC administrative judges and a 16% decrease in appeals to the EEOC Office of Federal Operations (OFO). The EEOC reported an improvement in the average processing time for OFO appeals from 378 days in FY2011 to 361 days in FY2012. However, the EEOC also reported at 15% increase in its federal sector case backlog, versus an almost 10% decrease in its backlog in private sector cases. As part of its plans for expediting the federal sector hearings and appeals process, the EEOC discussed its planned implementation of an electronic docketing and file transmittal system (EEOC File Exchange, or EFX) to all federal sector hearings units.
The Report indicated the EEOC suffering from continuing difficulties due to a hiring freeze which has been in place since January 2011. The EEOC has lost 159 FTEs, representing 6% of its workforce, compared to FY2011. The EEOC cut over $4 million from its federal sector programs budget. The largest reported cuts were from the training budget (decreased almost $2 million or 68%) and the budget for the EEOC’s federal sector mediation program (decreased roughly $250,000 or 25%).
If you are a federal employee and believe that you have been discriminated against and wish to discuss your rights, please contact [nap_names id=”FIRM-NAME-6″] & [nap_names id=”FIRM-NAME-4″] to request an initial consultation.
