Policy for Employment Discrimination Forms of Benefits Provided by the Program

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provides enforcement for the statutes that relate to civil rights in employment. The EEOC was created to provide for the "enforcement of federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant of employee" on the basis of the protected traits, or on the basis of the employee complaining about discrimination, according the EEOC website (2016).

In order to provide these benefits, the EEOC investigates claims made by individuals or groups -- including civil liberties groups and unions -- regarding specific incidents. The EEOC has established means by which it can be communicated, anonymously if need be, in order for an investigation to be initiated. The organization's resources are also put to use in publishing information regarding discrimination law at the federal level. The EEOC both investigates and litigates cases. The EEOC also uses other means, such as conciliation or negotiation, to bring cases of employment discrimination to a resolution.

The EEOC also has task forces dedicated to broaden the knowledge base with respect to equal rights in the workplace. For example, a current task force is studying harassment in the workplace. The EEOC, on the basis of such studies and task forces, is then in a position to offer advice to lawmakers about current issues with respect to workplace discrimination, to identify gaps in the laws, and to make recommendations with regards to resolving outstanding issues. The EEOC also gathers statistics, and has a publications arm to produce reports and statistics for both government and non-governmental stakeholders. The EEOC also has copies of the acts that are relevant to its jurisdiction that are available for viewing on its website.

A branch of the EEOC provides outreach and education, helping businesses and workers to understand the legal environment. For employees, the EEOC is instrumental in ensuring that employees understand the rights that they have under law, and for employers the EEOC can provide information that can help human resources departments to resolve issues and to formulate policy. Information is also provided to government to help with the legislative process.

The benefits of the EEOC in providing these different services are that the EEOC is in a unique position to gather information, which puts it in a position to inform the public and legislators, as well as that it is the natural best source of information about workplace discrimination. By compiling information about discrimination cases, it can better inform stakeholders about the issue, its prevalence and the outcomes of current cases.

Having a resource like this can help to bring cases to resolution more quickly. Furthermore, the resources that the EEOC provides to business can assist in developing better prevention techniques. Such techniques reduce workplace discrimination, thereby saving businesses the time and money that would otherwise be dedicated to dealing with discrimination situations. Equity of course is served through these programs, since equity is the objective of the Civil Rights Act and subsequent acts pertaining to equal employment. An enforcement body, the EEOC is specifically charged with bringing about a condition of workplace equity.

Eligibility Criteria

Federal law regarding employment covers all workers who work in companies subject to the law. The EEOC's enforcement mandate specifically notes that all businesses over 15 employees (EEOC.gov, 2016). There are separate filing processes for regular employees, federal employees and job applicants. Thus, most employees in the United States are covered by these statutes, and that coverage is enforced by the EEOC. State and local government employees are also covered, regardless of the size of the employer, such that an employee of a tiny village with under 15 employees would still be covered under this law.

The other dimension of coverage is that the person needs to be a member of a protected class, and the discrimination based on that protected class membership. Title VII covers discrimination on the basis of race, gender, national origin, religion or color. Pregnant women are covered under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which amended Title VII. The Age Discrimination Act extended coverage to people over the age of 40 (EEOC.gov, 2016). The Americans with Disabilities Act extended coverage to qualified people with disabilities. Further protections have extended to protection on the basis of a person's genetic information. The EEOC has determined that transgender status is covered under "sex," as is sexual orientation, and that it will extend its protections to those classes of people on...

This decision came about in July, 2015, with the EEOC appeals decision on the Baldwin v Foxx case (EEOC.gov, 2015).
The CRA was written to extend protections to members of a variety of groups. It was deemed necessarily in light of pervasive racism at the time, and remains necessary today. The groups protected are the ones that have historically faced the greatest amount of discrimination in the workplace. The protections are most particularly for their benefit, and are intended to be direct. To the extent that there are indirect benefits, which were secondary in the CRA and related acts, the philosophy is that the United States as a nation is better when the rights and freedoms expressed in the Constitution and other founding documents are extended to all citizens equally. The CRA was a means of codifying equality, and ensuring that the rights and freedoms of Americans are universally applied. The universal nature of these rights in a fundamental assumption in most conceptions of human rights, including the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Universality is a key philosophical underpinning of human rights, in large part because the rights vest with the person who holds them, not with other people to grant them. The CRA was a means of applying this principle of universal rights to the employment domain, specific to certain protected classes, and setting up an enforcement body to ensure that these rights are applied as intended by law.

That there are limits to the eligibility criteria is an interesting philosophical question, because the outcomes desired by discrimination legislation are that everybody receives fair and equal treatment under law. By reason, all people should be viewed as equal. Singling out specific groups for protection runs contrary to that ethos. However, the Act was needed to create a specific legal framework, essential for the pragmatic application of these concepts. In practice, the legal system cannot work with the idea that no discrimination could ever exist, because the decision to fire, not hire or pay somebody is always based on a form of discrimination. The Act was written in a way that forces companies to discriminate based on things like tenure and ability, rather than innate traits.

The NASW principle of social justice is outcome-based. Outcomes and inputs are both written into the laws enforced by the EEOC. For example, while the EEOC has inputs such as one's protected status, ultimately it is concerned with outcomes like pay, promotions and employment status. The NASW principle is also rooted in outcomes-based sense of social justice, where all receive equivalent justice outcomes. The equal pay provisions are essentially duplicative of social justice principles, but for the most part most of what the EEOC enforces has social justice ties, and any areas of difference relate to groups not protected, or to minor differences in interpretation.

Financing

The EEOC is financed through federal appropriations. Each year, the EEOC submits a budget to Congress, and this budget is the basis for the agency's operating funds. Congressional approval allows funds to go from the Treasury to different federal agencies, of which the EEOC is just one of many. There are procedures in place to ensure that the EEOC is using its funds to fulfill its mandate, but generally the agency's budget is relatively small as a portion of federal spending. While subject to oversight, it is rarely the subject of any sort of intense scrutiny. Each budget builds on the budget of prior years, accounting for changes in mandate or special circumstances.

Financing is essential for the agency to function. Its employees are required to gather information, to adjudicate cases and otherwise enforce the law. Without financing, the EEOC would be unable to perform these essential tasks. . Most of the EEOC would be closed during situations where federal funding failed to materialize as expected. The EEOC has a contingency plan in the event of future government shutdowns, under which only situations regarding the safety of human life would still be investigated and dealt with. All other cases would be delayed -- any long-term reduction of funding would dramatically hamper the ability of the EEOC to enforce the nation's laws regarding employment discrimination (EEOC, 2016). The agency under shutdown conditions will not respond to public queries, will not litigate in federal courts, will not engage in mediations, will not conduct hearings, will cancel all education and outreach, and will not honor Freedom of Information Act request (EEOC.gov, 2016). That is to say, the effects of any disruption in financing will be catastrophic for equity, effectiveness and efficiency. In the current political climate, short-term shutdowns are entirely possible…