FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 25, 2003

Contacts: Joseph Kaplan (202) 789-0100

Stephen Spitz (202) 331-9260

Leroy Warren (NAACP): 301 622-3633

COALITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS, EMPLOYEE ADVOCATE AND OTHER STAKEHOLDER GROUPS SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO IMPROVE THE FEDERAL SECTOR EEO PROCESS TO EEOC COMMISSIONERS

WASHINGTON, DC – On March 25, 2003, a coalition of civil rights organizations, employee advocates and other interested parties submitted a 7-step proposal to improve the federal sector EEO process to EEOC Chair Cari M. Dominguez, Commissioner Paul Steven Miller, and Commissioner Leslie E. Silverman. This proposal is in response to EEOC’s intent to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the December 9, 2002 issue of the Federal Register to reform the federal sector EEO process and to make it more efficient and effective.

The coalition highlighted that its proposal was intended to achieve the co-existing goals of: 1) adding (or restoring) credibility to the process; 2) making the process more timely; and, 3) preserving the EEOC’s primary federal-sector role as the adjudicator of claims of discrimination.

Each proposal taken separately would effect only limited change. However, taken together, the coalition believes these proposals will effect major change in the processing of federal-sector. The 7-step proposal consisted of the following recommendations:

1) alternative dispute resolution (including, but not necessarily limited to, mediation) should be mandatory at the EEOC hearing stage and for managers at the informal/formal administrative stages; 2) EEOC should adopt a uniform standard for what complaints “state a claim,” which standard is acceptable to all stakeholders, consistent with law; 3) cases should be assigned to one of three “litigation tracks” depending upon the complexity and detail of the issues involved; 4) agency EEO directors must report directly to the agency head; to ensure compliance with this requirement, in its annual report to congress, the EEOC should specifically identify which agencies are not in compliance with this requirement; 5) agency counsel must be prohibited from interfering with the EEO investigation, and the EEOC should adopt minimum standards for EEO investigations; 6) agencies should be required to issue a “180-day letter”, informing the employees of their right to immediately request to hearing; and, 7) EEOC must take steps to regain its prominence as the agency of the United States Government responsible for ensuring compliance with anti-discrimination laws and to become a “change agent” for those agency cultures where discrimination is tolerated.

The 7-step proposal was approved by the American Federation of Government Employees; Blacks in Government, Region XI Council; California Employment Lawyers Association; Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives; Delany, Siegel, Zorn & Associates, Inc.; Florida Employment Lawyers Association; JDG Associates, Inc.; Kator, Parks & Weiser, PLLC; Kalijarvi, Chuzi & Newman; Law Office of Mary Dryovage; Law Office of Kitty Grubb; Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; NAACP, Federal Sector Task Force; National Congress of Vietnamese Americans; National Employment Lawyers Association; National Employment Lawyers Association, Federal Rights Committee; Passman & Kaplan, PC.; and, Workplace Fairness.

The coalition was emphatic in insisting on the maintenance of the investigative function at the agency level and on the continuation of EEOC hearings. These two issues are consistent with the recommendations made on an August 5, 2002 letter sent to EEOC from eleven organizations affiliated with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Employment Task Force and with the majority of the panelists who testified at a November 12, 2002 open session meeting at EEOC.

According to Joe Kaplan, principal of Passman & Kaplan and one of the organizers of the coalition, “The suggestion from the EEOC thus far has been that not all federal employees are entitled to a hearing on their discrimination claims and that not all discrimination in the federal workplace is deserving of the EEOC’s resources to eradicate. This is fundamentally wrong. The coalition’s proposals strengthen the EEOC’s authority to eliminate discrimination while also keeping frivolous cases from clogging the system. To use a cliché, the EEOC wants to ‘throw out the baby with the bath water.’ The coalition means not only to keep the baby, but make it cleaner in the process!” “There is no doubt,” Kaplan said “that these proposal command wide support from a broad spectrum of groups and individuals who are concerned about eliminating discrimination in the federal sector and strengthen employees’ rights, rather than diminish them as the EEOC Chair seems to have in mind.”

The coalition stakeholders requested a meeting with the Chair, and each of the Commissioners as soon as possible to discuss its 7-step proposal.