Daily Labor Report 1/18/05 EEOC New National Call Center, Agency Reorganization Ahead for EEOC in 2005

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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

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As she looks toward a fourth year at the helm of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chair Cari Dominguez hopes to expand outreach efforts, to build on a well-established mediation program, and--after the anticipated launch of a national call center this March--to move forward with other steps in an agency reorganization.

"I feel very good about our accomplishments," she told BNA in a recent interview, reflecting on the record financial benefits the commission garnered for victims of discrimination during the last fiscal year, and looking toward plans for 2005.

Launching the Call Center The commission's national call contact center is expected to go into operation in late March. The center, which is the first step in a planned agency wide reorganization, is located in Lawrence, Kan., and operated by Pearson Government Solutions under a $4.9 million contract.

The call center, which was approved by the commission in September, will handle the approximately 1 million routine, annual telephone inquiries that currently are directed to EEOC field offices. An internal commission task force found that about 40 percent of those calls were from charging parties, while the other 60 percent were from callers seeking general information that could be given through an automated message machine or callers requesting technical assistance or other information that could be accessed through a computer database.

The project, headed by Elizabeth Thornton, a former deputy legal counsel and director of field programs for EEOC, was a top priority for Dominguez last year.

More 'Repositioning' at Agency With the call center ready to open, Dominguez said she is reviewing a final package on "repositioning" the agency. The reorganization proposal is expected to be presented to the commission for a vote in the next few months.

Although she declined to address specifics of the package, Dominguez said it will build on the reorganization plan recommended by the National Academy of Public Administration in 2003, as well as subsequent recommendations from various in-house panels and input from constituent groups. "It's time for action," she said. "We're going to keep moving forward."

Changes in the field office structure are expected to be part of the plan, as is reorganization of commission headquarters. While NAPA, an independent research organization, called for a sharp reduction in the number of field offices, EEOC employees and stakeholders have expressed skepticism about this suggestion and it remains unclear in what direction the final report will go.

Medicare, Applicant Guidance Anticipated In early 2005, the commission also is expected to publish final regulations on coordinating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act with Medicare, as well as guidance on the definition of job applicant for purposes of federal EEO reporting requirements.

The controversial ADEA regulations would allow employers to reduce or end benefits when a retiree becomes eligible for Medicare or comparable state retiree health benefits, without potentially violating the age bias law.

The regulations are intended to address a growing concern that the specter of violating the age discrimination act could encourage employers to eliminate health benefits for retirees.

Last month, the regulations were in the final inter-agency review process, prior to being sent to the Office of Management and Budget. They are "at the top of the list" and should be published shortly, Dominguez said.

However, the ultimate fate of the regulations remains unclear. The commission's position has been widely supported by both the employer community and organized labor. But AARP, the older Americans' advocacy organization, has argued that the change is contrary to the purposes of the ADEA and beyond EEOC's authority. Representatives of the organization said that AARP is prepared to challenge the regulations in court when they are published in final form.

The agency also is "far along" toward publishing final guidance on a revised definition of "job applicant" for the purposes of federal EEO recordkeeping and reporting, according to Dominguez. A final draft is being coordinated and is expected to be sent to the commission for its approval shortly, she said

The guidance, which was under development for more than three years, was issued in proposed form last March and is intended to assist employers in determining at what point the large number of electronic resumes they receive become job applications. It was jointly issued by EEOC, the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, and the Office of Personnel Management, and clarifies how the 1978 Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures apply in the context of the Internet and related technologies.

The guidance states that individuals who apply for jobs through the Internet must be considered "applicants" for purposes of federal equal employment opportunity recordkeeping if they have followed an employer's standard application procedures and indicated an interest in a particular position.

Elsewhere on the regulatory front, no immediate action is likely on a proposal for streamlining the process of handling federal sector EEO charges. "We're gathering information at the staff level," Dominguez said. "It's not going as fast as the other regulations, but we'll be moving forward." In the past, she has emphasized that mediation will be a key component of those regulations.

Convincing Employers to Mediate The growing EEOC mediation program has had a significant positive impact on the agency's record financial accomplishments, Dominguez said.

The commission has reached 71 national mediation agreements and more than 600 local agreements with employers that have agreed to refer all appropriate workplace disputes to alternative dispute resolution before the commission begins investigations or commences formal litigation.

Dominguez said she intends to continue her emphasis on mediation, as well as on other outreach efforts during 2005.

"The more universal agreements we execute, the better we're able to resolve charges early on," Dominguez said. "I personally believe in the advantage of national mediation agreements as a way to bring corporate attention much closer to the problems of discrimination."

In mediation, she said, the focus will be to build upon last year's results while continuing to examine ways to more effectively reach the employer community. Employers agree to participate in mediation only about 30 percent of the time, according to commission statistics.

Benefits Up, Charge Filings Down The commission reaped a record $415.4 million in benefits for victims of discrimination during fiscal year 2004, according to preliminary data provided to BNA in December. Both the number of charge filings and resolutions dropped off slightly from the previous year, however, continuing a two-year trend as far as charge filings.

The financial awards included $251.7 million obtained at the administrative level and $163.7 million obtained through litigation. Included in the administrative awards, was $112.4 million garnered through the agency's mediation program.