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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Chairwoman's Introduction
This is our second Annual Performance Report under the
Government Performance and Results Act of 1993. We have been able
to continue our successes from fiscal year 1999. This has been a
great accomplishment by all of our dedicated staff in every office
throughout the United States.
Since I became Chairwoman of the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission in October 1998, we have been implementing
an innovative agenda to increase the fairness, quality,
effectiveness, and efficiency of all aspects of agency operations.
We have focused on expanding outreach, education and technical
assistance to a broad range of stakeholders to ensure that EEOC is
the nation's premier civil rights enforcement agency. In
particular, we placed special emphasis on reaching out to small
businesses and under-served minority communities to promote
understanding and voluntary compliance with the laws enforced by
the Commission. Although we sought to prevent discrimination in the
first instance, we pursued fair and vigorous enforcement against
those who violated workplace anti-discrimination laws.
EEOC has embraced a new vision and work strategy that has won
the respect and praise of many who have criticized the agency in
the past. The Commission has been on the cutting edge of enforcing
the nation's anti-discrimination laws through a dynamic
comprehensive enforcement approach. Our accomplishments have been
embodied in quality settlements, major conciliations, inventory
reduction, mediation, reductions in average processing time,
significant trial victories, crucial policy guidance, and
constructive rulemaking. In short, our work and impact is being
recognized by stakeholders, Congress, the news media, and the
general public as a critical element in achieving the American
dream of equal opportunity for all.
Under our revised Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years
2000-2005, we have focused our resources and identified
measures to continue our significant progress into the new century.
This FY 2000 Annual Performance Report is an opportunity
to provide our employees, Congress, stakeholders and the public
with a concise report of our significant progress during the past
fiscal year towards achieving our goals and, ultimately, our
mission of eradicating employment discrimination at the
workplace.
FISCAL YEAR 2000 KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In fiscal year 2000, the Commission made important progress
towards achieving its goals. Some highlights of our key fiscal year
2000 accomplishments include:
- Cutting the pending inventory of private sector charges
(backlog) to 34,297 - a 15% decrease from the fiscal year 1999
level of 40,234.
- Lowering the average charge processing time for private sector
charges to 216 days - a reduction of almost 50 days from fiscal
year 1999.
- Increasing the number of successful resolutions handled through
the National Mediation Program to 7,438 -a 54% increase from fiscal
year 1999 -and mediating cases on average of 96 days.
- Obtaining substantial monetary benefits of $292.6 million for
victims of employment discrimination through the enforcement
process.
- Expanding outreach, education, and technical assistance to
small and mid-sized employers and under-served minority
communities-including a record 2,961 events attended by 218,000
people nationwide.
- Reducing the federal sector appeals inventory by 14% and the
hearings inventory by 13% from their fiscal year 1999 levels.
MAJOR PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
We continued several major projects and program activities and
instituted others that led to our extraordinary successes in fiscal
year 2000. In the attached Annual Performance Report our
major program activities and accomplishments are described more
fully.
Comprehensive Enforcement Program
One of my key initiatives after I became Chairwoman was to
improve all components of agency operations in both the private and
federal sectors using a Comprehensive Enforcement Program (CEP)
strategy. The CEP builds on the success of the Priority Charge
Handling Procedures (PCHP) and the National Enforcement Plan, the
Commission's strategy for prioritizing its caseload and focusing
resources on issues of national significance, respectively. In
fiscal year 2000, the first full year of the agency-wide CEP, the
Commission utilized the Private Sector CEP to strategically focus
agency resources on goals and increase collaboration among
front-line functions, from outreach and intake through case
resolution. As a result, the CEP has sharply increased charges
resolved that deliver relief to charging parties and focused
limited litigation resources on the most egregious cases and on
cases benefitting multiple charging parties.
There are several key components of the Private Sector
CEP:
- Fiscal year 2000 was the first full year of EEOC's
groundbreaking National Mediation Program. The
program has won the endorsement of a broad range of agency
stakeholders, including business and labor advocates, civil rights
groups, and representatives of the employer and plaintiff bars. A
report prepared by a consortium of professors from Maryland
colleges and universities showed that the overwhelming majority of
employers (96%) and charging parties (91%) participating in the
program said they would use it again and that both employers and
charging parties expressed strong satisfaction with the EEOC
mediation process as a highly effective dispute resolution
mechanism. We have made the report available on our Web site at www.eeoc.gov.
- Another significant component of the Private Sector
CEP is EEOC's Small Business Initiative
(SBI), initially launched in fiscal year 1999 with key
input from the employer community. In fact, in recognition of its
small business efforts in fiscal year 2000, the EEOC received a
rating of "Excellent" by the Small Business Administration's
National Ombudsman for Regulatory Fairness.
- Through its Litigation Program, EEOC obtained
several major litigation victories and settlements in a wide
variety of occupations addressing discrimination against vulnerable
recent-immigrant communities, women in non-traditional jobs, people
with disabilities, older workers, and minority individuals. The
agency also filed several high-profile lawsuits addressing
egregious discrimination and hostile work environments. In
addition, the agency increased the percentage of policy and
multiple party cases in the active litigation docket to 36%, up
from 28.5% in fiscal year 1999. Consolidating claims against an
employer results in more efficient service to the public and
greater consistency in remedies on the same or similar issues.
Under the Federal Sector CEP, the agency
significantly expanded its efforts to prevent discrimination as
well as reduce the hearings and appeals inventories. Significant
achievements in the federal area include the following:
- The Commission initiated a strategic approach to
Federal Sector Reform by linking improved data
analyses, prevention activities aimed at the root causes of
discrimination, and a streamlined process for addressing EEO
complaints. Key to the Federal Sector CEP are the revised
federal sector regulations (29 C.F.R. Part 1614) streamlining
procedures governing the discrimination complaint process for
federal employees (which became effective in the beginning of
fiscal year 2000 on November 9, 1999).
- The Commission improved the overall hearings program and cut
the hearings inventory to 11,153, a 13% reduction from the fiscal
year 1999 ending inventory of 12,808.
- In fiscal year 2000, the EEOC was able to stem the growth of
its appeals inventory through the use of innovative case management
techniques and pilot programs. It reduced the appeals inventory to
9,975, the first reduction since implementation of the original
Part 1614 regulations in 1992, and a 14% reduction from the fiscal
year-end 1999 inventory of 11,548.
Outreach, Education, and Technical Assistance
The agency's outreach, education and technical assistance
efforts are vital components of our work to eradicate employment
discrimination. Key accomplishments in this area include:
- EEOC field offices conducted a record 2,961 outreach,
educational, and technical assistance events in fiscal year 2000,
reaching 218,000 people nationwide-including 242 events geared
toward small business audiences attended by 8,628 people.
- We continued offering specialized and in-depth
technical assistance through a series of Technical
Assistance Program Seminars (TAPS) providing practical,
"how-to-do-it" guidance for private employers and government
agencies. In fiscal year 2000, EEOC conducted a total of 296
for-fee training events reaching a total audience of over 23,200
individuals nationwide, as well as other specialized seminar
programs and on-site training programs.
- We commemorated our 35th
Anniversary by conducting a series of anniversary events
at field offices across the country; held an art and essay contest
for students; worked with the American Bar Association's Section on
Labor and Employment Law to produce a joint 35th
anniversary publication reviewing the history of the Commission;
and joined with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to create
an Attorney Honors Program to recruit qualified entry level
attorneys and train them for highly skilled legal work in each
agency.
- We held a special Commission Meeting commemorating the
10th Anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), reviewing the history of ADA
enforcement and looking ahead at challenges in the 21st
century workplace.
- We upgraded and expanded our industry-acclaimed
Internet Home Page on the World Wide Web
(www.eeoc.gov) in fiscal year
2000, adding features about our landmark 35th
anniversary, a special report on the 10th anniversary of
the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a user-friendly search
engine to locate information on the site. Use of the Internet site
increased 88% last year-from 82,714 average number of visitors per
month in fiscal year 1999 to 155,496 in fiscal year 2000. We also
established an internal EEOC Intranet Web Site,
providing a one-stop shop for information for agency
employees.
Task Forces to Improve Enforcement and Outreach Efforts
EEOC created several internal task forces and an initiative to
address specific areas of the Commission's responsibilities to
improve customer service and enforcement of the laws:
- The Equal Pay Task Force provides assistance
to field enforcement staff in their development of cases involving
equal pay and employment discrimination in compensation.
- The National Origin Task Force has developed a
strategy to guide and coordinate EEOC's overall efforts to address
national origin bias more effectively, particularly for recent
immigrant and refugee populations, through education and outreach
at the grassroots level, collaboration with community groups,
extensive research, and data analysis.
- The Asian American and Pacific Islander
Initiative implemented Executive Order 13125 to improve
Asian Americans' and Pacific Islanders' access to participation in
federal programs. EEOC developed an inventory of Asian American and
Pacific Islander participation in agency programs, developed a
strategic plan for fiscal years 2001-2003, which includes
increasing the number of agency publications in languages other
than English, and identified resources for distributing EEOC
publications to this community.
- The Low Wage Earner Task Force is building a
coalition of stakeholder representatives and contacts and to
develop an enforcement plan addressing low-wage earner issues by
focusing on outreach to immigrants, border workers, and farm
laborers, identifying issues pertinent to each community.
- EEOC's Cash Balance Task Force guides the
Commission's review of cash balance pension plans and will be
recommending whether cash balance pension plans- which reduce the
"expected" retirement benefits of older employees, while increasing
the benefits to younger workers-are unlawful under the Age
Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
Policy Guidance and Rulemaking
Another important Commission responsibility is to provide
guidance to our own employees and the employer and
employee-representative communities. Several important policy
guidance and rulemaking accomplishments occurred in fiscal year
2000:
- Guidance on Remedies for Undocumented Workers
explains that the anti-discrimination laws enforced by the
Commission protect all workers in the United States, regardless of
their work status. Undocumented workers are entitled to the full
range of remedies provided under the anti-discrimination statutes,
except for limited exceptions where such remedies would conflict
with the immigration laws.
- EEOC issued a new Compliance Manual Section on
Threshold Issues outlining the requirements an individual
must satisfy to have a legal claim under the EEO statutes. The new
chapter continues the Commission's ongoing effort to update its
Compliance Manual to enhance enforcement and compliance with the
anti-discrimination laws.
- EEOC issued comprehensive Guidance on
Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations
explaining the circumstances under which an employer can ask
current employees disability-related questions or require medical
examinations under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act.
- Also, EEOC issued Guidance on Executive Order 13145: To
Prohibit Discrimination in Federal Employment Based on Genetic
Information, implementing Executive Order 13145 which
prohibits genetic discrimination by the federal government. This
guidance represents a major step in the ongoing development of the
legal analysis of how to address genetic discrimination in the
workplace.
CONCLUSION
Our achievements in fiscal year 2000 demonstrate that the agency
is working diligently to provide enhanced customer service to all
of our stakeholders. Our comprehensive enforcement approach and
strategic utilization of resources have allowed us to capitalize on
the major progress made in fiscal year 1999 and sustain and build
upon our accomplishments in fiscal year 2001.
EEOC will continue to strengthen its enforcement efforts through
improvements in customer service to deliver fair, efficient and
effective service to the public. Equally important, we aspire to
prevent discrimination through outreach and education efforts that
promote understanding and voluntary compliance with
anti-discrimination laws.
Discrimination in the workplace on account of race, color,
national origin, gender, age, religion or disability deprives the
nation of the skills and talents needed to sustain economic growth
and deprives families of the quality of life they deserve. EEOC has
helped open the doors of opportunity for countless Americans -
enabling our nation to grow, prosper, and reap the rewards of a
diverse workforce. While we have made considerable progress, more
remains to be done. EEOC stands ready to do its part to ensure the
promise of equal opportunity to all
Sincerely,
Ida L. Castro
Chairwoman
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