Civil rights groups question possible changes to EEO process

Civil rights advocates and federal employee organizations staged a protest rally Wednesday to oppose proposed changes to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity redress process. In an effort to shorten the lengthy and time-consuming employee complaint process, EEOC Chairwoman Cari Dominguez has floated several ideas over the past few months to revamp the system. Two proposals under consideration include abolishing hearings and eliminating investigations at the agency level. "As currently designed, the federal process can take up to four years. Many employees have retired from federal service before they see justice dispensed," Dominguez said in a written statement.

Agencies now have 180 days to complete their investigations of complaints. After 180 days, the complainant can request a hearing before the EEOC. Once jurisdiction shifts to the EEOC, the agency cannot continue its investigation without a judge's approval.

But employee and civil rights groups said the changes being discussed are too drastic and that the groups haven't been consulted about how to improve the process. To show their displeasure, members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the NAACP Federal Sector Task Force, the National Treasury Employees Union, the National Council of EEOC Locals, the Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives and Black Males for Justice joined Joseph Kaplan of the law firm Passman & Kaplan in the protest, which was held in front of the EEOC's offices in Washington.

"While the chairwoman's staff has been working on proposals to eradicate or reduce federal employees' important protections, they have done so behind closed doors," said Kaplan. "None of the commission's stakeholders-not federal employees, federal employee representatives, unions or federal agencies-have been included in the secretive deliberative process apparently going on."

The groups also criticized a proposal that would give agencies 60 days to resolve complaints through alternative dispute resolution. According to the proposal, if the complaint is still unresolved after 60 days, the employee could appeal to the EEOC or file a lawsuit in district court.

"If you remove hearings and the administrative judges from the process, it's like removing the steering and motor from the car," said Ken Burton, a member of Black Males for Justice, a group of 2,200 Social Security Administration employees that successfully sued that agency for discrimination in 1995 and settled the suit this year. "What you have left is a sofa that passed a collision test."

In her statement, Dominguez cautioned against premature judgments about what measures would be adopted to correct the grievance process.

"No definitive proposal has emerged yet regarding exactly how the federal sector process may change in order to improve efficiency, effectiveness and fairness," Dominguez said. "In considering our options, please be assured that our focus will be on how to best utilize all of the human capital allocated for EEO programs throughout the federal government in a more proactive, consultative manner."

David Grinberg, a spokesman for EEOC, said the agency planned to hold a public meeting in late August or early September that would focus on reforms in the federal equal employment opportunity process. Dominguez also plans to hold roundtable discussions with stakeholders in the next few months, he said.

"This is a concern of the highest level for NTEU," said NTEU President Colleen Kelley. "NTEU would not stand for a daylight attack on our members' civil rights, and we certainly are not going to stand for a sneak attack in the dark of the night."