Another Failing Report Card for the EEOC

DENVER, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six months into the new fiscal year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) finally posted its fiscal year 2007 report card. The failing customer services results most likely explain why the agency was in no hurry to release the data. According to Gabrielle Martin, President of the National Council of EEOC Locals, No. 216, which represents the agency's employees, "The bottom line is that the agency's workload is up -- way up -- but the EEOC's shrinking workforce can't keep up. This means the public is waiting longer for help."

While the agency's just released data shows that the number of charges of discrimination filed in 2007 jumped up to the highest since 2002, the number of EEOC's employees is at a record low point. Specifically, the EEOC has lost one quarter of its workforce since 2002, ending its year with a paltry 2,158 employees nationwide. "EEOC's Fiscal Year 2007 report card demonstrates that more work is coming in the door, but less work is going out, because there are fewer employees available to do that work," says Martin.

In fact, the year-end figures paint a picture of the delays that the public is facing once a charge of discrimination is filed with the EEOC:

-- EEOC's backlog of private sector cases is 54,970 up 38% in one year;

-- EEOC resolved only 72,442 cases in FY07, compared to 95,222 in FY02; and

-- The average time it takes to process a case rose to 199 days.

The new fiscal year 2009 EEOC budget request calls for adding 177 employees to the current staffing ceiling. Martin endorses the much needed staffing increase, but warns, "First, EEOC must actually hire the allotted staff. Right now, EEOC is sitting on 200 positions that it is authorized to fill for 2008, but hasn't. Second, the staff must assign new hires to frontline positions, which serve the public, like investigators and support staff. If EEOC does not prioritize getting this staff on board, then EEOC is promising the public, another year of failing customer service for 2008."