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EEOC wants to step up crackdown on ‘systemic’ violations

by February 23, 2011 3 Comments

The Obama adminstration’s not letting up on employers any time soon. Latest evidence: A proposed 9.5% increase in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s budget.

According to Gerald Maatman and Christopher DeGroff, attorneys for the national law fim Seyfarth Shaw, the EEOC hopes to increase its budget and assign more front-line investigators to its administrative investigations of employers.

Their target: “Systemic violations” — employer policies and procedures that involve groups of employees who could be victims of discrimination.

Maatman and DeGroff, quoting from the EEOC budget proposal, say the agency’s planning to “prioritize spending for the Systemic Initiative… (because) systemic cases generate substantial media and other public notice, (and) they help to deter other employers from engaging in similar prohibited conduct.”

The Obama administration estimates that the EEOC will receive 105,917 new private sector discrimination charges, topping last year’s record high of 99,922.

Maatman and DeGroff take an in-depth look at the EEOC budget proposal on their firm’s Workplace Class Action Blog. For the EEOC’s explanation of its budget proposal, go here.

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  • HR Annie

    I know that I am not going to be the most popular person by saying this but, everytime someone is terminated now a days they want to delieve that they are a victim of discrimination.

    Not to say that it does not happen, but it would also be nice to be advised on the number of cases that NEVER go anywhere because because after an investigation they realize that it is just a disgruntled former employee.

    In this day and age with the pass mass layoffs, there had to be tons of employees that wanted to see exactly how much they could get if they just yelled discrimination.

  • B-rad

    I agree Annie….you’re not “unpopular”

    Look at the stats. Close to 80% of all charges filed in FY2010 (and the trend stays true in most years) are either Dismissed-No Prob. Cause……or Admin. Closed…..

    Why increase the budget. Just start charging a $10 fee to file an EEOC charge, as an administrative cost. Guarentee that the frivilous or fradulant claims will go way down.

    Did I just come up with a solution to cut down on paperwork AND generate revenue for the gov’t? :)

  • PO’d HR Guy

    A 9.5% increase in the EEOC budget seems unwarranted. While I like B-rad’s idea of the $10 fee, it will never happen because undoubtedly someone somewhere must have deemed it discriminatory.
    It would be seen as a barrier preventing some people from filing a claim. But it’s all too easy to file a claim and it’s costly to the defending companies and to the taxpayers who have to pay for the government staff to process these claims.

    The other thing is that in most of these cases the intake administrator could probably make the determination that the claim doesn’t stand a chance, but that doesn’t happen either. It has to go up the ladder and be reviewed by who knows how many “qualified” people before a determination is made to proceed. This process keeps all the bureaucrats employed.