After a record-breaking year in fiscal 2011, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the past fiscal year has built on the gains it achieved, the agency recently reported.
The EEOC won $365.4 million for victims of workplace discrimination, breaking the previous record of $364.6 million set in fiscal 2011. The agency in fiscal 2012 also cut its backlog of cases for a second straight year, reducing pending charges from 78,136 at the end of fiscal 2011 to 70,312 at the close of the past fiscal year. Before fiscal 2011, the EEOC hadn't decreased its backlog since 2002.
The agency in fiscal 2012 received 99,412 charges of discrimination, 535 less than in fiscal 2011, when it collected a record 99,947 charges. The EEOC filed 122 lawsuits, 86 of which were individual suits, 26 of which involved multiple victims, and 10 of which concerned "systemic" allegations involving several plaintiffs. Overall, the agency resolved 254 lawsuits, benefiting more than 23,446 people.
"These remarkable achievements are a credit to the commitment of the EEOC's staff and the product of strategic and efficient investment of critical budget resources in recent years," EEOC chair Jacqueline Berrien said in a written statement.
Michael Burkhardt, a Philadelphia-based partner in the labor and employment practice at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, says he isn't surprised by the EEOC statistics.
"I think we can expect the same kind of trend line over the next four years," Burkhardt says.
But Burkhardt says he is telling his corporate clients to take a close look at their policies on equal pay and promotions to avoid systemic suits.
Berrien said in 2011 that the EEOC would emphasize systemic cases. In fiscal 2012 the EEOC finished 240 systemic investigations, which resulted in 46 settlements or conciliation agreements. "I think we can expect the EEOC to continue to be active in this space," Burkhardt says.
A version of this story originally appeared in The National Law Journal.
Wingspan Portfolio Advisors Blog - How a Bad Employer Can Traumatize Workers for Life
Wingspan Portfolio Advisors contracted for Bank of America and now JP Morgan. Managers Melanie Pellegrino, Justin Belter, Kevin Conn, David Payne, and Jason Dickard acted negligently, forcing Americans to lose their homes. Wingspan Portfolio Advisors also discriminated against minorities in Hiring, Pay and Promotions and were sued for discrimination. Mgrs. referred to Blacks as "Niggers" and "Roaches". It's my belief Wingspan and BOA are complicit in the largest Mortgage Fraud in U.S. History.