EEOC Issues Performance Report for Fiscal Year 2014

Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued its annual Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 that ended on September 30, 2014. The PAR report showed the EEOC – the federal agency that enforces laws enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination – secured nearly $300 million in monetary relief for victims of employment discrimination. The EEOC FY 2014 PAR is posted on the agency’s website at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/plan/2014par.pdf.

According to a press release about the FY 2014 PAR, the EEOC secured $296.1 million in monetary relief for victims of employment discrimination in private sector and state and local government workplaces through mediation, conciliation and other administrative enforcement. The EEOC also secured $22.5 million in monetary relief for charging parties through litigation and $74 million in monetary relief for federal employees and applicants. The press release is at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/11-18-14.cfm.

The EEOC received 88,778 private sector charges in FY 2014, a decrease of about 5,000 charges from FY 2013, and a total of 87,442 charges were resolved, 9,810 fewer than in FY 2013, likely due to the lingering effects of the government shutdown and sequestration. While a hiring freeze and attrition shrunk the number of agency staff between FY 2012 and FY 2013, the agency hired more than 300 staff at the end of FY 2014 to improve service to workers and employers in investigating and resolving charges of discrimination.

“Despite these hurdles, the employees of the EEOC remain committed to meeting the needs, addressing the challenges, and seizing upon the opportunities of the 21st century workforce,” EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang stated in the press release from the EEOC about the PAR report. “Increased hiring achieved at the end of FY 2014 and investments in technology should enable us to more effectively investigate charges in a timely fashion, while also improving the quality of our intake and investigations.”

During FY 2014, the EEOC continued to build a strong national systemic enforcement program by completing 260 systemic investigations that resulted in 78 settlements and conciliation agreements securing approximately $13 million in monetary relief.  By the end of the year, systemic lawsuits represented 25 percent of all active merits suits, the largest proportion of systemic suits on EEOC’s active docket since tracking began in FY 2006. More information about the EEOC is available on the agency’s web site http://www.eeoc.gov.

More News about the EEOC from ESR

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