By Deryn Sumner, December 14, 2016
The end of the year is a good time for reflection. What went well, what could have gone better, and how can we turn what we learned in 2016 into lessons learned so we can do better in 2017? Since Gary Gilbert started the Firm where I work in 2005, we have dedicated at least a day to this reflection exercise every year. In December, every attorney gets sequestered in our large conference room to talk about our accomplishments, our losses, what inspired us, what depressed us, and what we want to be talking about and doing a year from now.
The EEOC also did some reflecting regarding its accomplishments and published a Performance and Accountability Report for fiscal year 2016 on November 15, 2016. I’ve already discussed some of the EEOC’s accomplishments this year in the newsletter, most notably the results of the Commission’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace, which was issued in June 2016. We’ve also talked about the EEOC’s deployment of a pilot program to have administrative judges hold initial status conferences instead of issuing Acknowledgment and Orders. The Report notes that these initial status conferences have “been instrumental in increasing settlement rates, reducing the motions practice, providing customer service by informing the parties about the hearings process, and allowing greater time for more complicated cases.”
I love numbers and data, so I was particularly interested in some of the statistics provided by the Report. The Report noted various achievements regarding the federal sector arm of the Commission, many of which I’ve summarized and highlighted here:
- Employees and applicants received $76.9 million in relief in federal sector cases;
- The EEOC received 8,193 requests for hearing;
- 6,792 complaints were resolved;
- 3,523 appeals from final agency actions were received, which reflects a 3.45% decrease from the number of appeals filed in Fiscal Year 2015;
- The EEOC focused on resolving the oldest appeals pending “or those that vindicate employees’ EEO rights and/or preserve their access to the EEO process;”
- The EEOC resolved 3,751 appeals, of which 47.3% were resolved within 180 days of receipt;
- The EEOC reversed procedural dismissals in 436 cases, which reflects 22.5% of appeals filed seeking such reversals;
- The EEOC resolved 1,810, or 54.4%, of appeals that were or would have been 500 or more days old by the end of fiscal year 2016;
- The EEOC issued 111 findings of discrimination, which reflects a 22.7% increase from last year.
I will admit that I have criticized the Commission for the lengthy delays in receiving decisions, but it is heartening to see a focus on resolving older cases and obtaining relief for victims of discrimination. The complete Report is available here: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/plan/upload/2016par.pdf. [email protected]
