In fiscal year 2008, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received over 95,000 new private-sector charges of discrimination–a 15.2 percent jump over the prior fiscal year.
The information on the year ended Sept. 30, 2008 is available in the "Fiscal Year 2008 Performance and Accountability Report," posted on the EEOC's Web site, (http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/plan/par/2008/par2008.pdf), which also provides an update on efforts of the EEOC's mediation program.
For employment practices liability insurance professionals who track EEOC charge statistics, the new charge numbers indicate the continuation of an upward trend that started in fiscal year 2007, when the agency reported the largest increase since fiscal year 1993–an increase of 9 percent.
The 2007 total–82,792 private sector discrimination charge filings–was the highest volume of incoming charges since 2002 when charges totaled 84,442, the agency reported last year.
A history of charge statistics available on the EEOC Web site (at http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/charges.html) shows that charge levels fell for two consecutive years from 2003 to 2005, and then leveled off in 2006, before last year's 9 percent jump and this year's double-digit climb.
While the history of statistics has not yet been by discrimination type, in a letter introducing the fiscal year 2008 report dated Nov. 17, EEOC Chair Naomi Earp indicated some future areas of emphasis for the agency.
"On the policy front, in fiscal year 2009 we will address the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibits public and private employers from using genetic information in employment decisions," she wrote.
"In looking ahead, we find that race and color discrimination are still very much alive in the American workplace, and that significant work remains to be done," she added.
"Beyond traditional outreach and education efforts, we will pursue charges for priority, novel or emerging legal issues in the context of race and color discrimination, through the agency's E-RACE Initiative," she wrote, also highlighting work to be done in implementing regulation pertaining to the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Turning to mediation efforts, the report said the EEOC's national mediation program secured 8,840 resolutions in fiscal year 2008–2 percent more than the 8,649 reported in 2007. Monetary benefits obtained for complainants in mediation resolutions remained flat at roughly $124 million in both years.
Although the EEOC reported that participants almost uniformly view its mediation program favorably, the report also noted that the percentage of employers agreeing to mediate remains considerably lower than the percentage of charging parties agreeing to mediate.
As part of an effort to increase the participation of employers in the mediation program, EEOC has encouraged employers to enter into Universal Agreements to Mediate. (A UAM is an agreement between EEOC and an employer to mediate all eligible charges filed against the employer, prior to an agency investigation or litigation.)
The cumulative total of UAMs through fiscal year 2008 is 1,453–consisting of 178 national/regional UAMS and 1,275 local UAMs with agency district offices. The total represents a 14 percent jump from the fiscal-year 2007 level of 1,269 UAMs.
On Nov. 19, the EEOC announced its latest UAM partnership–with the state of Delaware, which marks the second time the EEOC has entered into a universal mediation agreement with a state government, according to a press statement.
Under the terms of the UAM, all eligible charges of discrimination filed with the EEOC naming any department of the state of Delaware as the employer/respondent will be referred to the EEOC's mediation unit, as appropriate. The state will designate a representative to handle all inquiries and other logistical matters to facilitate a prompt scheduling of the matter for EEOC mediation, the EEOC statement said.
Under the EEOC's National Mediation Program, more than 110,000 charges of employment discrimination have been mediated, with about 70 percent being successfully resolved in an average time of 97 days–less than half the time it takes to resolve a charge through an administrative investigation, EEOC said.
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