Fiscal Year 2000 Accomplishments

EEOC's 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 FY 1999. Moreover, our FY 2001 budget increase will allow us to sustain and build upon our significant accomplishments.
Chairwoman Ida L. Castro

In fiscal year 2000, the Commission continued its progress in making the agency more effective and efficient to serve the public better. Some of the more significant accomplishments include cutting its pending inventory (backlog) of private sector charges to a 17-year low, obtaining record-breaking monetary relief for victims of discrimination, further reducing the average charge processing time, increasing charge resolutions handled through its National Mediation Program, and expanding outreach and technical assistance to employers and under-served minority communities.

In fiscal year 1999, the EEOC received a much needed 15% funding increase of $37 million, allowing it to implement its National Mediation Program and other vital enforcement and outreach initiatives. In addition, Congress increased funding for EEOC for fiscal year 2001, appropriating $303.8 million an 8% increase of $22.9 million over the agency's fiscal year 2000 budget.

The Commission's accomplishments in fiscal year 2000 centered around the Comprehensive Enforcement Program (CEP) formulated at the beginning of October 1998. The CEP is a broad-based approach to enforcement involving the strategic coordination and integration of agency resources. A key aspect of the CEP is increased collaboration among staff in all agency functions, from outreach through resolution of cases in the private and federal sector programs.

Under the CEP, the Commission has focused its enforcement and outreach efforts on key issues first identified in the agency's 1996 National Enforcement Plan. These issues include sex-based wage discrimination and equal pay violations; harassment based on race, gender, and national origin; "glass ceiling" cases affecting women and minorities; language and accent discrimination, including speak-English-only rules; and cases involving egregious instances of systemic and pervasive discrimination.

EEOC's fiscal year 2000 accomplishments (covering the period from October 1, 1999, through September 30, 2000) include:

• Reducing the private sector pending inventory (backlog) to 34,297, its lowest level since fiscal year 1983. This is down 15% from 40,234 in fiscal year 1999 and down 69% from an all-time high of 111,345 reached in the third quarter of fiscal year 1995;
• Obtaining $292.6 million in total monetary benefits for private sector charging parties, including a record-breaking $245.7 million through administrative enforcement (pre-litigation);
• Decreasing the average charge processing time for resolving private sector charges to 216 days. This is a reduction of almost 50 days from fiscal year 1999 and 163 days from fiscal year 1996 when it took an average of 379 days to resolve a charge;
• Increasing the number of successful charge resolutions handled through voluntary mediation to 7,438 a 54% increase from 4,833 successful mediations in fiscal year 1999. Also, cases were mediated in fewer than 100 days on average;
• Increasing the rate of resolutions benefitting charging parties (merit factor rate) to 21% up from 17% in fiscal year 1999 and 9% in fiscal year 1996;
• Increasing the number of "cause" resolutions to 8,248, 9% of all resolutions up from 6.6% in fiscal year 1999;
• Conducting a record 2,961 outreach, education and technical assistance events reaching more than 218,000 people nationwide, including 242 events geared exclusively to small business audiences attended by 8,628 individuals;
• Obtaining 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 Commission also filed several high-profile lawsuits in geographic locations nationwide addressing discrimination in areas such as failure to hire blacks and women; failure to refer minority and female applicants; failure to pay women equal wages; disparities in benefits for older workers; and hostile work environments based on national origin, race and sex, including cases involving hangman's nooses used to intimidate and threaten minorities;
• Implementing new federal sector 1614 regulations (effective on November 9, 1999) to streamline the procedures governing the discrimination complaint process for federal employees; cutting the appeals inventory by 14% and the hearings inventory by 13% from the fiscal year 1999 levels; and issuing comprehensive revisions to Management Directive (MD) 110, which explains in detail the administrative processes for filing and adjudicating an EEO complaint under the 1614 regulations;
• Issuing policy guidance on the following key issues: disability-related inquiries and medical exams under the Americans with Disabilities Act; remedies for undocumented workers under the EEO laws; prohibiting discrimination in federal employment based on genetic information; and a new Compliance Manual section on "threshold" issues; and,
• Upgrading and expanding EEOC's industry-acclaimed Internet Home Page on the World Wide Web. The Home Page now includes an historic special section commemorating the Commission's 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. The public's use of EEOC's site increased a dramatic 289% over the 39,980 average number of visitors per month in fiscal year 1998.

The performance measures and the target levels adopted by the Commission in this Plan for fiscal year 2001 are designed to further enhance the agency's significant progress over the past few years.

This page was last modified on May 3, 2001.

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