The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is seeking the power to issue final decisions that federal agencies would not be able to override.
In a recent proposal in the Federal Register, the EEOC said it wants the commission's administrative judges' decisions to be final. Under current regulations, an agency may reject such judges' rulings.
In 1996, EEOC administrative judges issued 3,083 decisions, of which 284 found that agencies had discriminated against employees. Agencies overruled 63 percent of those decisions. In contrast, agencies rejected only four decisions in which discrimination was not found--one-tenth of one percent of all the cases made in favor of the agencies.
"This proposal eliminates a layer of review and permits decision-making at an earlier state, central goals of the National Performance Review," EEOC noted.
The commission also proposed to require every agency to establish an alternative dispute resolution program. Right now, agencies are encouraged, but not required, to offer ADR programs to their employees. Such programs, in which arbitrators mediate cases before formal EEO proceedings begin, often reduce costs and spare agencies and employees the time-consuming formal EEO complaint process.
EEOC is accepting comments on its proposals until April 21.
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