Letter Urges EEOC to Halt Changes to Federal Discrimination Complaint Process

A group of nearly 80 Democratic lawmakers have penned a letter urging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to rescind its proposal to eliminate protections “and strip federal employees of critical civil rights in discrimination complaints.”

In August, the EEOC proposed revisions to the rules governing the workplace discrimination complaint process for federal employees and applicants.

According to an EEOC statement, the proposed changes would include steps to make the complaint process faster, reduce the need for hearings with EEOC administrative judges and increase transparency.

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland was among those putting their name on a Sept. 28 letter to EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas. In a statement, Van Hollen noted the legislators’ support for implementing improvements to the existing federal sector EEOC process.

The lawmakers stressed, however, that this proposed rule “would make it more difficult for federal workers to challenge workplace discrimination and would weaken essential safeguards for their claims,” according to Van Hollen’s statement.

“The current process is slow and understaffed, agencies often miss deadlines and the structure requires an employing agency to investigate allegations against itself,” the legislators wrote.

“Reforming the process should correct these shortcomings. However, unlike the proposed rule, the reforms should not eliminate protections and shift more power to the agency accused of discrimination.”

The letter’s authors went to implore the EEOC to withdraw its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), instead engaging Congress in developing a revised proposal.

“While speed and efficiency matter, this proposed rule could have the effect of making EEO claims slower on top of stripping federal employees of key rights,” they wrote. “The federal government should be a model employer free of discrimination, and its civil-rights process should reflect that obligation.”