Minority group gears up for fall legislative session

Civil service reform, anti-discrimination legislation and potential changes to the Equal Employment Opportunity complaint process were some of the topics discussed during a legislative briefing session held Wednesday by Blacks In Government.

Blacks in Government (BIG) represents African-American employees in federal, state and local governments and has long championed equal opportunity in the federal workplace. This fall, the group plans to focus on several measures including the recently passed 2001 Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act (No FEAR). No FEAR requires agencies that lose or settle discrimination and whistleblower cases to pay judgments out of their own budgets. "The No FEAR Act forced the agencies not to be able to go to the community chest," said Earl Phillips, director of the Navy's diversity and quality of worklife division. "It's always easy when you're spending someone else's money." Though Phillips commended the role BIG played in helping to craft the legislation, he called for the group to press for more congressional scrutiny of "serial discriminators," describing a Navy case where one manager has had 19 discrimination complaints filed against him since 1997, but has not been punished. "There's a damn problem there," Phillips said. "In the federal government there should be zero tolerance for discrimination, and as long as we allow people to continue along and seek the haven of this massive government structure where they can hide, we're just spinning our wheels." Delhia Johnson, co-chair of the Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives, updated members on proposed changes to the EEO process, which include abolishing hearings and eliminating investigations at the agency level. EEOC Chairwoman Cari Dominguez is looking for ways to overhaul the lengthy and time-consuming employee complaint process. "Leaving the counseling and alternative dispute resolution aspect …with the agencies is not going to allow any of us to give this the importance that's needed here," Johnson said. "This forces employees onto the judicial track, which is already overburdened." Johnson said she had received very little feedback from agency officials about EEO reform plans and, while she agreed that the system needed to be overhauled, she pressed for more oversight and enforcement by EEOC, not any curtailment of employee rights. "Ensure that the agencies do it, and put the right people in place to get it done," Johnson said. The EEOC plans to hold a public meeting in late August or early September to focus on reforms in the federal equal employment opportunity complaint process. Dominguez also plans to hold roundtable discussions with stakeholders in the next few months. Jennifer Tyree, counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation and Federal Services, discussed civil service measures in the pending homeland security legislation, drawing comments from participants about the need for competent, well-trained managers in the federal workplace. President Bush wants managerial flexibility for the head of the new Department of Homeland Security on such issues as job assignments, pay rates and collective bargaining agreements for employees. "Carte blanche flexibility is not necessarily the answer," House Government Reform Committee staffer Tania Shand told BIG members. "We should take a look at agencies that currently have flexibilities and how well they are working."