The EEOC Supports its 2017 Performance Report with Enforcement and Litigation Data

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The EEOC Supports its 2017 Performance Report with Enforcement and Litigation Data The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) just followed up its performance report for the 2017 fiscal year with the release of enforcement and litigation data. The data shows retaliation as the number one charge filed by employees, with nearly 50% of all charges in the nation including a retaliation component. Retaliation was followed by race (33.9%), disability (31.9%), and sex discrimination (30.4%) charges. California had the privilege of being the third most charged state in 2017, carrying 6.4% of the nation’s charges, falling behind Florida (8.1%) and Texas (10.5%). Interestingly, California had higher rates of age and national origin discrimination charges compared to the national average. With the high volume of charges being filed in California, it is best to be proactive. If you have questions about what steps you can take before the EEOC comes a-knockin’ or after notice of a charge feel free to contact our friendly employment law attorneys.

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The EEOC’s Performance Report is a Cautionary Tale for Employers

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) just released its performance report for the 2017 fiscal year. The big take away is that while the EEOC has whittled down its inventory of unresolved charges to the lowest level in 10 years, there were still over 84,000 new charges filed from nearly 700,000 calls and complaints. Additionally, with a lower inventory of unresolved charges, it appears the EEOC has been able to invest more resources in turning charges into lawsuits. The EEOC filed 184 lawsuits, more than double the number of suits filed in the previous fiscal year. All told the EEOC recovered nearly half a billion dollars from workplace discrimination claims. As the saying goes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so feel free to contact our friendly employment law attorneys for best practices on how to protect your business.

The EEOC’s Harassment Prevention Efforts Should Be Highlighted In The Wake of The Harvey Weinstein Debacle

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The headlines in the news these last two weeks involving Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has put the spotlight on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.  But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been attempting to focus our attention on the issue of workplace harassment for over a year now, when it issued a study of harassment in the workplace, in an effort to “reboot workplace harassment prevention efforts.”  The “Report of the Co-Chairs of the EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace” (“the Report”) came out in June 2016, finding that workplace harassment remains a persistent problem and too often goes unreported.   The Select Task Force consisted of two EEOC commissioners as well as outside experts from employer, employee, human resources, academic, and other communities. The focus of the report, authored by co-chairs Chai R. Feldblum and Victoria A. Lipnic, was unwelcome or offensive conduct based on a protected characteristic under employment anti-discrimination law.   The Report noted some interesting statistics regarding the prevalence of harassment-based complaints. In 2015, the EEOC received approximately 28,000 charges that alleged harassment from employees working for private or state or local government employers, and 6,741 charges from federal government employees. Broken down by protected characteristic, sex-based harassment was most prevalent in…