TOPICS
TOPICS
EEOC unveils restructuring plans
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Tuesday it will open offices in Las Vegas and Mobile, Ala., and reduce its number of managers as part of a broad restructuring.
"Given the shifting demographics, changing business environment, explosive technological advancements and budgetary considerations of our times, this plan will recast the commission in a stronger and more viable position to carry out its mission," Cari M. Dominguez, chairwoman of the EEOC, said in a press release.
The reorganization follows similar recent proposals at other agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the General Services Administration.
"The proposal continues to advance the president's expectations--of every executive branch agency--to run a well managed, highly efficient, customer-centered, and results-driven organization," said Dominguez. EEOC has been reviewing its organizational structure for three years.
In an apparent attempt to anticipate employee union concerns, the EEOC announced that no jobs will be lost as a result of the reorganization.
Gabrielle Martin, president of the American Federation of Government Employees local that represents EEOC employees, said she was concerned that district offices will have less power as a result of the reorganization. AFGE has also complained that its members have not been asked to comment on the restructuring plans and that the commission needs to hire more staff.
EEOC officials said the agency would attempt to improve customer service by "reducing layers of management and other staff redundancies" and having only one supervisor for every ten employees. Field directors will have more control over their offices and headquarters will have less control, EEOC said.
Members of the commission will discuss the proposal further at a public meeting next Monday.
COMMENTS
- I can't believe my dues are being used to save the jobs of overpaid under utilized management and excepted service attorneys at EEOC. I wish efforts of the magnitude AFGE Local 216 has invested in attempting to save the jobs of these employees, could have been employed in grievances and eeo complaints filed by bargaining unit employees who have suffered for years under the current EEOC structure and by the very management employees we are protecting. The union should be looking at how it can advance the secure the interests of bargaining unit employees who are soley doing the work of the Commission. Let the Commission do what it wants with these non-dues paying excepted service employees. These employees are consuming so much of our budget in salaries, but yet they do none of the day to day work of the Commission. They have done virtually nothing to further anti-discrimination law or the plight of bargaining unit employees. For years management and EEOC attorneys told the public that employment discrimination exists in less than 3 percent of the over 80,000 to 90,000 cases we receive a year. This percentage changed slightly, after the private legal community began to reveal otherwise. The Commission is held hostage by these self serving employees and I, for one, would like to see a change. I say let the Commissioners get to yea or nay on this matter and then we move on. GovExec.com reader Posted May 25, 2005 11:43 AM
- My experience has been that asking for employee(s)comment(s) is merely a Management 101 exercise in "How to Sensationalize An Employee's Sense of False Worth" because any plans had previously been finalized. A-76'd Career Federal Employee Posted May 16, 2005 10:15 AM
- To quote Ms. Palmer's article, "AFGE has also complained that its members have not been asked to comment on the restructuring plans........" Even folks who are dumber than a rock have come to understand that employee involvement and buy-in to organizational changes maximizes the chance for success. Smart organizations and smart managers invite employee involvement in change through their unions as appropriate. Not everyone chooses to be smart. Those with an agenda, such as the administration, ignore employee involvement because their goal is to marginalize all unions. And those whose own biases lead them to continually post anti-union comments also ignore the obvious. Such posted comments do not reflect on unions; they reflect on the writer. Poor Richard GovExec.com reader Posted May 11, 2005 1:09 PM
