Managers' groups concerned about EEO proposals
An interagency task force looking at ways to improve the federal equal employment opportunity complaint process continues to come under fire from groups representing federal managers.
Formed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Clinton administration's National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), the task force was created in October 1999 to study and recommend ways to improve the EEO redress process.
In August, the Senior Executives Association (SEA) sent a letter to the EEOC/NPR Task Force, voicing concern over a proposal to create a database listing the names of federal managers accused of discrimination.
Since then, the Federal Managers Association (FMA) has joined the debate and SEA has expressed additional concerns over proposals raised during an Aug. 7 task force meeting.
According to a Sept. 6 letter to the task force from SEA President Carol A. Bonosaro and G. Jerry Shaw, the organization's counsel, one suggestion made during the discussion involved looking into possible sanctions against managers whose discrimination cases are settled. SEA argued that agencies, not managers, have the authority to settle cases, and that a settlement does not imply an admission of wrongdoing.
"To construe the agency's decision to settle a case as, in essence, an 'admission' of wrongdoing on the part of the accused manager is patently unfair and raises serious due process concerns," wrote Bonosaro and Shaw in the letter.
Other suggestions that drew criticism from SEA involve holding managers accountable for the success of dispute prevention programs through performance standards, and incorporating EEO/diversity policies into managers' annual performance plans. SEA said often managers have no control over the policies at the root of such disputes.
FMA joined SEA in its criticism of the creation of a database that could include names, Social Security numbers, addresses, and other personal information of both managers accused of discrimination and employees who file complaints.
"We at FMA believe that it would be difficult to garner such a large volume of data without ensuing privacy implications and ramifications," said Michael B. Styles in an August letter to Michael Morgan-Gaide, the task force's data collection team leader.
A source with the task force said the group did not at any time consider creating a database that would disseminate personal information indiscriminately. The source said the purpose behind the proposed database is to compile information-information on discrimination complaints that agencies and the EEOC already collects-and house them electronically where only authorized people can access the information.
The objective is to make the EEO complaint process timelier and more efficient, the source said.
An EEOC spokesman has said the task force is working very hard to consider all the issues that the database raises, and that it would be "premature" to discuss those issues prior to the release of its report. The report is scheduled for release later this fall.