The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for eliminating all forms of discrimination in the workplace. Through development and passage of legislation, and its enforcement arm, the agency seeks to reverse the trend of discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion and retaliation, as well as age, gender, sexuality, genetics and physical ability. While its mission is designed to help make the American workplace free of trouble, EEOC’s own operations have sometimes suffered from problems. Recently, the commission moved its Washington, DC, office into a “transitional” neighborhood, much to the dismay of its employees, and it opened a national call center that had union and Democratic members of Congress quite upset.
In the early 1960s, there was growing unrest in the country about racial discrimination and segregation, which came to light as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. In the spring of 1963, demonstrators were attacked with dogs, sprayed with water hoses and arrested or jailed. On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation, and eight days later, he sent new legislation to Congress. Opposition was fierce, but in August, 250,000 Americans marched in Washington, DC, and Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
In November, President Kennedy was assassinated, leaving the outcome of the civil rights legislation in doubt. But his successor, Lyndon Johnson, a veteran of Capitol Hill, took up the charge and utilized his well-honed legislative skills to push Congress into finishing what Kennedy had started.
On July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed. Among its goals was the elimination of discrimination in the workplace through the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became the most famous aspect of the new legislation, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion and retaliation.
The newly created five-member bipartisan commission in charge of the EEOC was given the power to receive, investigate and conciliate complaints. Only individuals could bring lawsuits, which the EEOC could then refer to the Department of Justice for litigation.
In 1971, Congress conducted public hearings on proposed amendments to Title VII. It concluded that despite its best efforts, the EEOC had failed to stem discrimination. So Congress passed the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which gave the EEOC litigation enforcement authority. This allowed it to use dispute resolution between workers and employers, such as mediation.
The bill also expanded the EEOC’s jurisdiction. It could now sue nongovernmental employers, unions and agencies, file pattern or practice lawsuits, and eliminate inconsistencies among various federal programs. The 1970s saw increased activity for the EEOC, and by 1977, the agency had a backlog of 94,700 unresolved cases.
The Supreme Court’s Griggs decision, which recognized the indirect impact of discrimination, helped the agency expand its influence. In 1973, the EEOC established task forces to investigate General Electric, General Motors, Ford and Sears Roebuck. Under Title VII, “commissioner charges” were filed against these employers, and gained settlements for entire classes of victims of discrimination. This was followed by suits filed against nine of the nation’s largest steel producers in 1974, and other major actions against airlines, railroads, and construction and utility companies throughout the rest of the decade.
President Jimmy Carter expanded the power of the EEOC to enforce its rules, which required more changes to the agency. In 1978, Carter signed the Reorganization Plan No. 1 and Executive Order 12067 to consolidate and strengthen the enforcement of all federal equal employment requirements. The EEOC also issued the Uniform Guidelines in connection with the Departments of Labor and Justice, the Office of Revenue Sharing, and the Civil Service Commission. These established the same standards for evaluating selection procedures used in hiring and promoting employees for all employers—private sector employers, federal contractors and grantees, and federal, state, and local governments.
The rest of the 1980s saw the EEOC changing and reassessing its role in the country. It had recently received enforcement authority over the Equal Pay Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and civil rights laws applicable to civilian federal employees. It also shifted its focus to the areas of age discrimination, sexual harassment and national origin bias.
On February 6, 2000, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13145, prohibiting discrimination in federal employment based on protected genetic information.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is charged with enforcing laws prohibiting job discrimination. Laws covered by the EEOC include: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Equal Pay Act of 1963; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The EEOC enforces these laws and others and provides oversight and coordination of all federal equal employment opportunity regulations, practices, and policies.
The EEOC has five commissioners and a general counsel appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Commissioners are appointed for five-year, staggered terms. The President designates a chair and a vice chair. The chair is the chief executive officer of the commission. Commissioners make equal employment opportunity policy and approve most litigation.
Litigation, the EEOC’s most important enforcement function, is carried out by the general counsel, who serves four years.
The EEOC has several initiatives it is currently undertaking. The E-RACE Initiative seeks to eradicate racism and “colorism” from employment. The Freedom to Compete Initiative is designed to form partnerships, liaisons, and alliances to educate the country’s workforce, deter potential discrimination and promote compliance and sound employment practices. The LEAD Initiative (Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities) is attempting to address the declining number of employees with targeted disabilities in the federal workforce. The New Freedom Initiative is supposed to promote the integration of people with disabilities into all aspects of American life. The Youth@Work Initiative seeks to promote equal employment opportunity for young workers.
The EEOC has spent nearly $357 million on 1,660 contractors this decade. According to USASpending.gov, the commission paid for a variety of services, from professional, administrative, and management support services to automatic data processing equipment.
The top 10 contractors were:
- State of California $22,267,830
- State of Ohio $16,030,671
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania $12,131,530
- State of Illinois $11,637,936
- Dell, Inc. $11,295,914
- State of Wisconsin $8,368,855
- State of Connecticut $6,446,310
- State of New York $6,420,894
- Veritas Capital Fund II, L.P. $5,576,853
- Federal Management Systems, Inc. $5,558,537
EEOC Call Center Raises Controversy with Employee Union
In March 2005, the EEOC opened a national call center to report discrimination complaints, much to the dismay of Democrats in Congress and the agency’s employee union. The union had lobbied unsuccessfully to stop the call center, saying it would decrease efficiency. The EEOC argued the new center would help the commission respond to more calls.
The call center was rumored to have cost at least $18 million, considerably more than the $4.9 the agency had been paying. The union maintained that the center would be manned by underpaid workers who would perform poorly. Several Democratic senators, including Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), wrote letters opposing the call center. The EEOC is funding the call center by not filling open job slots in other areas of the agency.
EEOC Office Move Creates Conflict with Employees
In May 2007, the EEOC came into conflict with its employees when it moved its headquarters from downtown Washington, DC, to a rougher transitional neighborhood known as NoMa. The move was part of general cost-cutting measures the agency had been making in order to reduce a backlog of unresolved cases. Many employees described the situation among workers as mutinous, due to the relocation to a high crime neighborhood filled with dance clubs and warehouses.
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Founded: 1964
Annual Budget: $342 million
Employees: 2,052
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Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
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Berrien, Jacqueline
Chair
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President Obama has turned to a veteran civil rights attorney, Jacqueline A. Berrien, to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an independent agency responsible for eliminating all forms of discrimination in the workplace. Although she was nominated July 17, 2009, Berrien was not confirmed by the Senate until April 7, 2010, Her nomination was greeted warmly by civil rights activists and others on the left, but at least one right-wing organization, Americans for Limited Government, has criticized Berrien as an “ideologue” who “finds racism in everything.”
Berren’s mother, Anna, spent almost thirty years as a federal employee in the field of public health, while her father, Clifford, worked for the State Department. Berrien was born in Washington, DC, in 1961. Following in her parents’ footsteps, in her senior year in high school she worked as clerk-typist for the federal government. Berrien earned a B.A. in Government from Oberlin College in 1983, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as a General Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, in 1986. While at Oberlin, Berrien served an internship with the NAACP. After law school, Berrien served as a law clerk to U.W. Clemon, a 1960s-era civil rights activist who became the first African-American U.S. District Court Judge in Alabama.
Following her clerkship, in 1987 Berrien went to work as a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, and in 1989 joined its Women’s Rights Project (WRP), which had been founded by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1972. At the ACLU WRP, Berrien worked on pregnancy discrimination cases. In May 1992, Berrien left the ACLU to work for the Voting Rights Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C.. In August 1994 she joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), where she coordinated LDF’s work in the area of voting rights and political participation. She represented African-American voters in proceedings before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Courts. In November 2001, she became a Program Officer for the Ford Foundation Peace and Social Justice Program. She administered more than $13 million of grants to promote greater political participation by underrepresented groups, particularly people of color, women, and youth. In September 2004, she returned to the LDF as its new Associate Director-Counsel, where she supervised LDF’s litigation, public education, and organizational work.
Berrien has been a member of the Oberlin College Board of Trustees since 2007. She has taught trial advocacy at Harvard and Fordham law schools and has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School, where she taught a course entitled Blacks and American Law. She has published several articles on race and gender discrimination issues, including “A Civil Liberties Imperative: Promoting Quality Education for All African-American Children” in the Columbia Teachers College Record (Summer 1993) and “Pregnancy and Drug Use: The Dangerous and Unequal Use of Punitive Measures,” in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism (Spring 1990).
Berrien has lived in Brooklyn, New York, since 1987 with her husband, Peter Williams, the executive director of a community economic development corporation. A Democrat, Berrrien has contributed $3,250 to Democratic candidates since 2007, including $3,000 to Barack Obama in 2007 and 2008.
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Earp, Naomi
Previous Chair
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A native of Newport News, Virginia, Naomi Churchill Earp has served as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since August 31, 2006, after serving as vice chair beginning on April 28, 2003. Her current term expires on July 1, 2010.
Earp received her bachelor’s degree from Norfolk University in Virginia, her master’s degree from Indiana University, and her Juris Doctor from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC.
She was an attorney advisor at the EEOC during the mid-1980s, and has worked as an independent consultant providing services to private employers and public agencies on a variety of employment-related issues and programs.
Her government service has included working at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, serving as director of the Office of Advocacy and Enterprise at the Department of Agriculture, and director of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity of the National Institute of Health.
She is a member of the Supreme Court Bar and the Pennsylvania Bar. She is also a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and is actively involved with the Labor and Employment Section of the American Bar Association.
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