Council Meeting

Held Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Host: Ms. Delia J. Johnson

INTRODUCTION

Ms. Delia L. Johnson, Co-Chair of the Council and Director, Office of Civil Rights for International Broadcasting Bureau, opened the meeting by introducing the guest speaker, EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien, and subsequently asked the attendees to give their names, agencies, and positions.

Jorge Ponce, Council’s Co-Chair, pointed out to EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien that the main policy issue of the Council was to get the EEOC to issue guidance by FY 2012 on the interference by “some” Offices of General Counsel in the processing of discrimination complaints in the Federal Government. He pointed out that the Council had done a survey on this issue back in 2003, which it had shared with the EEOC. Mr. Ponce asked Chair Berrien for assistance on this matter, and indicated that he had asked EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum for the same assistance at the November 30, 2011 Council meeting. In addition, the Council addressed this issue at its April 7, 2011 meeting, whose minutes you can review here. Chair Berrien acknowledged his comments. She noted later in her remarks that hearing about the intrusion issue and the references to conversations that occurred before her tenure is like coming into a movie in the middle. She said she looked forward to learning more about the issue. She noted that with regard to the comments by Co-Chair Ponce on the issue of intrusion, EEOC’s MD-715, in the “Efficiency” mandate, set forth the requirements for the appropriate relationship between an agency’s EEO Office and its Office of General Counsel. She assured the Council that if it wanted to provide any formal statement on the issue of intrusion, it would be considered. Co-Chair Ponce thanked Chair Berrien for her comments. He indicated that although MD-110 and MD-715, which have been around since 1999 and 2003, respectively, addressed the interference issue, the civil rights community was in dire need of having EEOC provide more thorough guidance on this issue. Co-Chair Ponce indicated that the fact that the civil rights community was addressing this issue in 2012 was proof that it was looking to EEOC for further assistance.

EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien

Chair Berrien thanked Co-Chairs Ponce and Johnson for inviting her to address the Council.

Chair Berrien stated that one piece of information that is not found in her biographies is the fact that both of her parents worked for the Federal Government. She is no stranger to federal service, as her first federal job was as a GS-2 clerk typist. Her first official engagement as EEOC Chair was to attend a meeting of EEO Directors, and she’s working currently on the FY 2012 – 2016 EEOC’s draft Strategic Plan – which is posted on the EEOC’s webpage at http://www.eeoc.gov to secure public comments through February 1, 2012.

Chair Berrien indicated that when she got to EEOC in 2010, the agency had lost about 1/3 of its resources and staff between 2000 through 2008. President Obama restored these resources to EEOC in FY 2009 and FY 2010 -- which allowed the agency to hire frontline staff, increase its training budget, and invest in new technologies. While EEOC has made a lot progress lately, it is not where it wants to be at, yet. Nevertheless, EEOC took a $7M reduction in its FY 2012 budget.

Chair Berrien reported generally on EEOC’s accomplishments in the last year. She indicated that EEOC received a record 99,947 charges of employment discrimination and obtained $455.6 million in relief through its administrative program and litigation in Fiscal Year 2011. For the second year in a row, despite a record number of receipts, EEOC resolved more charges than it took in with 112,499 resolutions (7,500 more resolutions than FY 2010 -- an increase of 7%) --leaving 78,136 pending charges, a ten percent decrease in its inventory, the first year the agency has seen a reduction since 2002.

With regard to EEOC’s accomplishments in the federal sector, Chair Berrien stated that EEOC issued to federal agencies a 3-year trend analysis letter on their MD-715 data, and conducted over 100 technical assistance visits in FY 2011. She noted that MD-715 is the “prophylactic” that serves to prevent discrimination complaints. She reported that EEOC had successfully focused on resolving appeals that have been in the EEOC’s inventory for 500 or more days – reducing the inventory of those appeals by one-third. She stated that EEOC resolved a total of 7,672 requests for hearings, securing more than $58 million in relief for parties who requested hearings in FY 2011.  It also resolved 4,510 appeals from final agency determinations.

In commenting on EEOC’s draft Strategic Plan for 2012-2016, Chair Berrien stated that it seeks to have the work of the federal sector and private sectors be accomplished in a more coordinated way.

Chair Berrien noted that the EEOC is working more collaboratively with its sister agencies in several areas. EEOC continues to participate in various interagency councils (like the DOJ’s Reentry Council that advances prisoner reentry strategies into the workforce, and the Equal Pay Council that ensures equal pay for equal work for women). Chair Berrien indicated that she was glad that President Obama mentioned equal pay for women in his 2012 State of the Union address. EEOC is working with OPM, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to address pay disparities in the public and private sectors.

Chair Berrien stated that EEOC is working with the Office of Management and Budget to enforce Executive Order 13548 to increase the employment of persons with the disabilities in the federal sector, 13518 to increase the employment of veterans (especially those with disabilities) in the Federal Government, and 13583 to promote diversity and inclusion initiatives in the federal workforce.

Chair Berrien mentioned that she took great pride in the increased collaboration between EEOC and OPM. Co-Chair Ponce suggested that EEOC should explore the possibility of securing a permanent seat on the OPM’s Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council. Chair Berrien responded that she’s always receptive to new ideas. EEOC’s Chief Operating Officer Claudia Withers indicated that the EEOC’s staff meets regularly with OPM’s senior staff, including Veronica Villalobos (OPM’s Director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion). Carlton Hadden (EEOC’s Director, Office of Federal Operations) noted that in years past, the cooperation between EEOC and OPM was not as robust, and that this was a point of criticism from the Council, as well as the GAO. However, now the level of cooperation between EEOC and OPM is better than he could ever recall it being. Co-Chair Ponce stated that while he agreed with Mr. Hadden’s statement, he still saw a need for the EEOC Chair to sit on the CHCO Council to ensure that civil rights issues received the same amount of visibility as HR issues.

A Council member from the Air Force and a former EEOC Legal Counsel recommended the institutionalization of “free” barrier-analysis training in coming years – given the current austere budgetary environment. He indicated that the barrier analysis training provided by EEOC costs an average of $1,000, so the Air Force is developing its own training at a much cheaper price. He suggested that EEOC should consider giving free online training on barrier analysis – like OPM has done with HR-related topics. Chair Berrien responded that EEOC does provide some training at no cost, but the law that governs training costs associated with the revolving-fund requires that costs be recovered through fee-for-service arrangements. Nevertheless, EEOC continues to explore new ways to use technology to provide free training to federal agencies – like a current effort being looked at to provide free training to small businesses. Carlton Hadden indicated that EEOC has conducted a series of free brown-bag trainings on barrier analysis, as well as secured subject matter experts to address various EEO Directors’ meetings. As well, he noted that each agency is different with regard to what its needs are, but that the EEOC staff provides technical assistance to federal agencies so that they can address their unique situations. The Council member responded that the Air Force has a global staff. Therefore, he indicated that the training that Mr. Hadden discussed would be of little use to the staff outside the Washington, DC area. Chair Berrien indicated that EEOC is looking at a host of different ways to ensure that all stakeholders have the training that they need, including offering on-demand webinars, and social media such as YouTube training vehicles.

A Council member from NASA noted that while he appreciated how the Commission had worked to reduce the inventory of aged appeals, he was concerned about EEOC hearings. He asked whether EEOC has considered outsourcing hearings that have sat in EEOC’s backlog for over 1,200 days. Chair Berrien noted that while EEOC resources are limited, the Commission was exploring ways to address such situations. Claudia Withers, EEOC’s Chief Operating Officer, indicated that in order to provide better customer service to complainants and agencies, EEOC had moved some hearings from one district to another with smaller backlogs – as well as securing detail assignments to increase the number of available Administrative Judges.

Era Marshall, Director, Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs, Smithsonian Institution and Council’s Vice-Chair, asked how EEO and HR offices could work together on the Re-Entry Program. Chair Berrien encouraged Council members to look at the transcript of the July 26, 2011 public meeting on the EEOC’s webpage, as well as review the myth-busters blurbs by clicking here. She indicated that EEOC also has provided technical assistance on this issue upon request – as it’s done recently with the USDA.

Ms. Marshall asked what are EEO offices to do if they are approached by re-entry issues, considering that she thinks that they bear no relationship to civil rights. A Council member from the Air Force responded that they could fall under prohibited personnel practices, in which case the employee could gain access to the MSPB. Co-Chair Ponce stated that they could also fall under EEO if the allegations fell under the disparate impact theory.

Chair Berrien ended her presentation by thanking the Council for the opportunity to meet, saying that she looks forward to continue to work with the Council in the future.

The Training Consortium

Charles Pettit announced that the International Training Consortium and Gallagher & Gallagher Worldwide were hosting a Thought Leadership Conference on Diversity & Inclusion, Civility and Bias on March 26-28, 2012, at the Sheraton New York Towers in New York City. He indicated that the Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives would be presenting at one of the workshops.

For additional information on this conference, click on here.

The Diversity Group

Mauricio Velasquez and Kevin Neal led a discussion and took notes on the reaction of Council members on OPM’s call to federal agencies to prepare strategic plans on diversity and inclusion.

For additional information on this company, click here.