good morning everybody I hope
everybody's doing fine this morning
my name is Yvonne Garcia I'm an
enforcement supervisor for the while
Employment Opportunity Commission in
Atlanta and with me is mr. Thomas Rowe
he's a senior federal investigator for
the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and we're just gonna talk a
little bit about what we do on your
summer mission how knowing about us will
help you I hope you don't need it I
always say but it's good to know that in
case something so so bad like
discrimination and employment happens to
youth and you know what and that we are
here for you basically we are federal
agents agency a federal government
agency we enforce the laws against
discrimination and employment and
there's several laws different laws that
they have they cover different bases and
issues concerning discrimination in
employment and we are going to briefly
go over each one of them and if you have
any questions at the end we can actually
take the time to answer them and if we
don't know the answer right now we'll
find it for you and we'll get back with
you because it could get actually quite
technical it's not something that is
written in stone so to speak so each
case that when we investigate it is
separate and independent and it depends
on the circumstances and how the law is
applied in terms of the outcome one of
the questions many people have concerned
the EEOC if we are going to be
representing them in the case of
discrimination employment discrimination
employment case initially the answer is
no we are neutral fact finders what we
do is investigate an allegation of
discrimination and employment at the
light of the federal law that applies to
that particular situation and then if we
find that a violation occurred that's
when we actually could potentially
represent a person that's something I
need to make a distinction
because some people say ok why I went to
the ELC they're expecting to have like
an attorney assigned to them and don't
have to pay for that we don't charge
obviously we are a federal government
agency but then it's not like you have
an attorney from the EEOC representing
you you can actually have your own
attorney and you pay the attorney to
represent you at the same time we are
conducting an investigation of the case
so let's get into what we do the first
line we have is what we do different
different programs that we have when you
file a charge with the EEOC one of the
first things that you need to know is
that you have 180 days from the date of
the alleged adverse employment action
that you feel was discriminatory so
that's six months let's say
unfortunately you are terminated you
have six months from the date of the
employment termination to file a case
with a EEOC if you actually show up the
one hundred eighty one thing we don't
have jurisdiction over that matter so
that's very important that's the first
thing second thing is that depending on
the law that you're gonna be filing
under if it is title seven which is the
one that covers race national origin sex
discrimination pregnancy and some of the
some other bases that we're going to go
over later on or if it is a DA which is
the Americans with Disabilities Act the
employer has to have 15 employees or
more so if you're working for a small
business that has less than 15 employees
for 20 consecutive weeks during that
calendar year then it's not going to
record so you can actually be working
for a small employer they discriminate
against you you go to us you come to us
be able to hope you can file but we're
not gonna investigate it because we
don't have the jurisdiction in terms of
the age discrimination and Employment
Act there's a difference because the
employer needs to have 20 employees or
more during those two any consecutive
calendar weeks during the year where the
discrimination when the discrimination
occurred or the year before so it's kind
of technical but we have investigators
once you get to the EEOC we're going to
explain that to you the only law where
you don't need to have a minimum number
of employees but two is Equal Pay Act
which is based on like female or a male
that is making an allegation that is
being paid less because of their sex
you only need one other person to
compare to so that's why it's something
to people so what we have when somebody
comes to the EEOC basically the first
thing is to file the charge the charge
we have a reception we have
investigators that they're going to talk
with you about your your rights we're
gonna go go in depth concerning what
happened to you we're going to ask you a
lot of questions and then if you decide
to file the charge that same day you
file the charge you sign it we're going
to serve it to the employer an employer
will have to actually reply to the
allegations in the charge but before we
investigate we have a mediation program
you file the charge we invite both
parties to come to the EEOC and try to
resolve the matter before doing any type
of investigation so that's given an
opportunity to both parties to actually
sit down and try to settle within the
first 60 days of filing the charge he's
a very successful program where you
don't have to go to an investigation you
don't have to wait sometimes
investigation depending on the
complexity they could take up to a year
so you don't have to go to that and you
can get your relief what you want or
something that you feel like you know is
good enough for you and then that's it
cases hope the case is over
if not then is going
goto investigation with wishes the next
step and that's where the case is going
to be assigned to a federal investigator
it's going to conduct an investigation
and tom is going to talk a little bit
more about that later on and then
actually we have two other steps here we
have conciliation and litigation let's
say we find probable cause in terms of
the case we have the evidence we feel
that we have a strong case we are gonna
actually make it letter set a letter of
determination to the employer saying the
EEOC found that based on delegations
that the charging party put on the face
of the charge discrimination occurred
and we're gonna ask for it really we
leave and we're gonna see that later on
has different stages it's not only money
we have training we have you could be
rehired there are so many things that
could be done to actually make you whole
concerning the situation they have but
the employer can actually still say no
I'm not interested in mediating
conciliating with you guys if you want
technique court which is a next step
because the EEOC actually is a federal
administrative investigative agency
which if we let's say don't find cause
or we find cause and and the respondent
does not want to conciliate we can take
the case to court or you can take the
case to court
it's federal court in that case and here
in Georgia is the Eleventh Circuit some
cases we decide that we have strong
allegations and we're gonna actually
represent the charging party and at that
time we do become your advocates and
then we take the case to court those are
some of the ones that you see in the
news that sometimes is high amount of
money you see millions of dollars or you
see hundreds of thousands of dollars
depending on how severe and the decision
of the charge or the jury
so these are the protected bases we have
we're gonna go into them a little bit
more later on but race color national
origin Orion and sorry religion sex
those are title seven then we have
disability which is a da we have age
which is the ADEA for age you have to be
40 years all who older I say that you
know what because we have had so many
people younger people oh I have been
discriminated against because of my age
and then 25 because older people have
been treated better
unfortunately no you're not you have to
be 40 and over and then retaliation
retaliation well we have genetic
information as well which is something
new word that we have is it was actually
a proof in 2008 and we haven't seen that
many cases about these but what it
actually talks about just to give you a
small you know information about it
let's say your employer is conducting
tests and we're talking about medical
tests some kind of testing they're
saying okay let me just send you to lab
and have you had some blood work done
but then intention is to see if you
could potentially in the in the future
will develop some type of condition so
when you are being higher in the process
and they do that they say okay you have
a family history of cancer for example
or high blood pressure something that I
feel you know I don't want to deal with
and then when they do the blood work
they found out that you most probably
than not we have something like that
happening to you in the future
all of a sudden no we don't need you
anymore
so that that's what it talks about is
something that we haven't seen that much
but he had had and he's good for people
to actually know about retaliation he
said it's at the bottom because we tally
Asian basically talks about when you
complain about being discriminated
against or whatever of those bases you
can say I feel I have been discriminated
against because of my sex then you're
covered when an adverse employment
action is taken
after you complain about discrimination
but it's an unjustified purse employment
action I have to clarify that because
many people they they just go there and
say you're a file a charge where I
complain to HR and three weeks after
their termination
so that's retaliation yeah in essence it
is but then if you actually did
something that was grounds for
terminating you then there's nothing we
can do we have to actually prove the
second portion of it that is that is the
pretext that is protection or they just
wanted to fire you because you complain
about a protected or file an EEOC charge
so these are the bases we have and we
talked a little bit about that and I
talked about the number of employees
already so we can actually bypass that
one these are those were all the laws
and we're going to go into issue on
those these are the employers that are
covered and that we actually investigate
private sector I will say it's most the
major part of what we do we do
government as well cities counties labor
organizations let's say you have a union
and the union you feel is not
representing you properly and there's
some sort of discrimination being been
done on behalf of the union then we can
investigate it even though there's the
National Labor Relations boards will
that investigates the unions but we can
actually investigate the discrimination
portion of staffing companies joint
labor management committees controlling
apprenticeship and training who are the
protector individuals basically
everybody who is in a work
employee-employer relationship that's
another thing because if you are an
independent contractor you're not code
you just go there on your own time
you're controlling what you do they are
not controlling your your conditions of
employment then you are not an employee
of that person you're just gaming
professional service services or you're
an independent contractor you're not
going to be
but if they dictate the time when you
come in or you're gonna do they
supervise you and they pay you on a
regular basis you're an employee in
essence and basically your core so
that's the distinction that we have to
make what areas we cover basically these
are just examples there's more to that
with hiring firing group men jump up
attachments and we have seen a lot of
that where you have like age
discrimination cases where you have
hiding recent graduates something and
then what about people who are older you
know they're that they graduated 10
years ago so they're not going to be
considered that in certain way or in
many cases that we have seen it's a
practice to actually without people who
are gonna be older they're just
targeting the 40 and over all the ends
and saying I just want people who
recently graduated and then my workforce
is gonna be joining we have assignments
promotions training benefits layoffs
that happens very often discipline turns
on conditions which basically applies to
any difference in terms of how one group
is treated compared to another and then
it has to be related to one of the bases
like if you say have a group of females
being treated differently than a group
of males in terms of training uniform
equipment all of that that you need to
actually do what you need to do in your
job then you're talking about different
terms and conditions of employment or if
you're talking about overtime and then
one particular group is allowed to
actually make overtime and the other one
is not that's the difference in terms of
and conditions of employment an
individual is a member of a protected
group we talk about that adverse
employment actions or anything that
affects your employment the worst one we
know is termination basically you no
longer work for the employer
and what do we need in terms of evidence
that is a difficult thing because for
the in in first place when you started
working for the employer you were not
thinking you were going to be
discriminated against and you're not
thinking okay you have to be recording
or I have to be keeping saving documents
or you know but the minute that you feel
something is something wrong is
happening it's good to actually try to
get as much evidence as possible what is
good evidence or evidence that is I will
say more concrete so to speak I would
say like you know you can email let's
say your employer sends you an email and
that email you're requesting to work on
that you're gonna be off Saturdays
because of your religious belief let's
put that example out there and then they
say no but we need you and you actually
know that when you took this employment
this job you were going to work on
Saturdays the employer is required by
law to enter into a discussion of a
potential reasonable accommodation
because of your religious belief the
same goes with with disability they
don't do that and they just right away
say you know we're not even going to
entertain that that could potentially be
discrimination in employment so that
type of evidence is what we're talking
about what else we can actually use
witnesses if you have somebody who were
over her dad or was a witness of the
situation we can interview that person
and that we use as well and there's some
other other things that we use but in on
behalf of the charging party or the
person that is finding the charge I will
say that that's one of the most common
things that we see
that's basically remedies are what we
have is the first one and the most
common one is going to be money but we
have reinstatement we have had
promotions and given to the person who
filed a charge because it was denying
training for the employer it's very
common we do that or change in terms of
the policies and practices and attorney
fees if you're being represented by an
attorney we can ask the respondent to
pay for that as well these are just
cases we are not going to go through
that because those are just examples of
what we talked before the morning that's
being actually granted as part of the
monetary relief portion of these cases
the EEOC at different offices and
actually taken to court
the cost is discrimination basically we
have financial cause like I said
attorney fees settlements litigation
litigation actually that's why we are
successful in terms of mediation because
litigation is very expensive for the
employers so that's something that helps
in terms of entertaining a settlement
discussion in case we have a situation
where we have to try to mediate or
conciliate the matter for the business
when you have a discriminatory pattern
you could actually represent that the
productivity is going to go down because
the morale of the plays people suffering
the discrimination and basically going
through a difficult situation like that
they're just thinking about that instead
of being productive then over people
just resigning and their reputation that
we know that if a company goes up
they're like those cases that goes to
the news and that there has a negative
in terms of the employers we take a lot
of charges unfortunately discrimination
is something very common more common
than now think about unemployment
and those are the numbers concerning the
charges for 2018 and the monetary relief
that's nationwide I gotta say you know
it's not here in your year only but it
gives you an idea of how much we're
talking about how how egregious this
unfortunate practice is here in the
United States those are charged that
stats that we have concerning different
areas of cases that we have investigated
retaliation is the top one because like
I said it covers all the laws you think
about it you can you can complain about
retaliation for sex or you can complain
about retaliation for disability or age
so I go it actually goes across all the
different laws that we enforce and it's
very common because even though let's
say we cannot prove that you were
discriminated against because of your
sex for example but then we can prove
that you were terminated for example for
complaining about it
then we are successful in terms of the
retaliation portion of it and that's why
we have so many cases second one and
it's nowadays very common and very
well-known is sex discrimination sexual
harassment in so many cases it's the
second highest and the EEOC actually is
putting a lot of effort concerning that
one especially given the city that we
have been having recently concerning
this big big cases disability would be
the third one and then so on we had
raised age national origin color
religion the Equal Pay Act and generic
information like I said is something
kind of new because if you think about
title 7 it was a proof in 1964 and this
one it was approved in 2008 so it's the
most recent law and it's just getting
known right now by the public and in
terms of these novell someone's big
practices from the borders so
retaliation we covered that basically is
when you complain about protector
activity so
gonna go too much over that and those
are the adverse employment actions that
could be cover or you could actually
suffer for complaining about
discrimination now I'm gonna leave you
with Tom Thomas Rowe he's gonna talk
about in a specific about some of the
laws he's gonna talk about disability
based on thank you thank you
at the start you were mentioning after
180 days or if it doesn't have the
twenty people and all that at that point
is no longer on the EEOC jurisdiction at
that point is your right even if we know
that it's not polar you can file a
charge and take it and you'll be off to
the judge because you have to think
about the EEOC as an administrative
agency so obviously the court is going
to be our tire iron and mold higher
standard so the judge is you're gonna
see the cases differently actually even
if we investigated a cage what did you
think it for poor that George is not
gonna be looking into what the EEOC did
you're gonna look at everything they
have in front of them and make the wrong
decision so there's a and I can actually
talk with you later on we don't force
this portion of the law and you can talk
to an attorney about it my understanding
is that there's another title which is
notice it's the city for example title
seven but where you can actually file
cases beyond the 180 days jurisdictional
times those those cases they're gonna
have their limitations we're not experts
on there so that's why I'm really
getting into into it that much but some
people they just go charging parties
they go on file the case they get back
to their attorneys knowing that it's
untimely and they can actually just go
over that particular title and file
something
corner for civil lost but it's not gonna
be investigated that's the thing we're
not gonna investigate and I don't have
any data concerning you know their
results I guess it works obviously
because this is an alternative if you
have but it won't be under the laws that
we were talking about heat so that
timeframe that jurisdictional timeframe
or limitation he's based on the yes but
most of the time and my knowledge is
that when you have social small
employers it's not too much you can do
actually the discrimination wise
concerning those adverse employment
because I'll you have like small
restaurants you have five people working
there and they can say I'm gonna have
people from the same natural origin or
I'm just gonna hire the people of one
particular race and you see that very
often they I think we can get away
because the law is now will take
actually a change in the law from the
Congress to you know get cooperation any
other questions okay now one of the
things that at the point that we decide
that the Commission decides that we
won't investigate a charge that you
bring to us or you know concerns bring
to at every point that that happens we
do issue that right to sue that allows
you to file suit in federal court on
your own within 90 days of the date of
that letter so don't get discouraged
about stuff like that and also the small
the number of employees don't don't be
discouraged about that either if you do
find that your discriminate against you
work in a small place perhaps the owners
the restaurant or whatever whatever the
company is they may have several
different companies that fall under them
so in that case we do roll the employees
of all those companies and together to
we do we do move forward with that so it
also always benefits to at least come by
and and talk to someone so we're going
to the disability discrimination this is
a title one of the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 as a minute
this is one my favorite laws to deal
with I I really enjoy working with this
part disabilities basically disability
is anything that affects your common
everyday life or it used to be more
restrictive but now within with the
amendment in 1990 disability affects
just your basic functions of the daily
life and a qualified individual is
someone who can perform the essential
functions of their job with or without
accommodation and so if you were going
along and you find that you suddenly
come up with diabetes or I mean there
are multitude things that can happen to
you especially the older you get the
more we tend to break down but you can
still continue to perform your job with
an accommodation which means anything I
mean it could be various things someone
who's going deaf for instance in a
factory type situation an accommodation
may be that there's a flashing lights
going for any kind of warning system
anything like that you can read along
there obviously the slides
disability covers fiscal mental
impairment and actually go on the
disability itself the record of
disability were the perception of
disability and this also covers if you
happen to be taking care of someone who
is disabled a child for instance or
parents you would be covered under the
law at work so and when you when
something happens where you're disabled
you bring and we'll talk more about this
but your responsibility is to make the
company aware that you have this issue
going on and usually what happens is
it's a discussion back and forth between
you say HR and you know represent some
the company you and your doctor to
determine what you need to bill perform
your job these are different examples
the reasonable accommodation the
employer has to provide that if it
doesn't become unduly burdensome or you
know there's such a thing that an
expense would be too great so that it
it's an undue hardship for the employer
to provide the accommodation a good
example this is a case I had one time
where nurse came in like there was a
case but she did come to visit me and I
sat down talked with her if she had MS
and it progressed to the point where she
was shaking she was a registered nurse
and she got to the point where she
shaking so badly that she couldn't give
IVs or take blood or give shots or
anything like that that is one of the
essential functions of her job that
can't be overcome unfortunately we
couldn't do anything for her because the
only the only way to keep her working
would be to have another registered
nurse tag along with her that's that's
not logical you know you're paying two
people for what one person could do
however if on the other hand she had an
issue where she couldn't lift over like
20 pounds but yet she's in you nursing
you have to push full lift a lot or
doctors a nordley could do that kind of
thing so that would be an accommodation
that would work for register nurse just
an example any questions so far
remember that you have to start the
process you have to request the
reasonable accommodation and then the
employer entertain the conversation of
only because some people think oh well
you know they see that I'm thinking and
they're not if you have to request them
they don't have to do it and these are
examples of undue hardship for the
employer significant difficulty or
expense really in relation to the size
of the employer
all right their financial resources and
the impact of the accommodation on the
operations and facility one case that I
had was a a very large employer grocery
store and the lady came in she was and
sometimes you don't know and this is
where we go as it's regarded as disabled
so she had an accident she was out for
six months having surgeries and stuff
like that she came back to work now she
worked in the deli and comes back to
work and thought that she would be okay
and it turns out that during the day she
started slowing up or like you know
start slowing up or knee and she
couldn't stand all day long like she had
before and so the employer told her no
you know you can't you can't work until
you're 100 percent better and and for us
even though she's expected to get over
that eventually you know maybe a couple
years down the road it'll be a non-issue
so she's not really technically disabled
but in this aspect we considered as
regardless disabled nonetheless
disabled or not she still has the right
to work know what accommodation would be
a stool that she could sit on you know
when she's not actively helping a
customer you know not 24 hours a day or
customer to set by the deli counter you
know so there are times and her doctor'
provided a excuse they please allow her
to sit down as needed to relieve the
pain and swelling in her Lake and the
employers answer to us was that they
honestly they said they took that to
mean that she would be sitting down for
the majority of her shit and so they
denied it so that's one that we did go
cause on because it's a simple matter
you know does it cost to make I'm sure
there's a stool sitting around somewhere
in the manager's office just waiting for
her use it you know so that's that's an
example of reasonable accommodation
applying for job there's another one an
example that how this would work also
had a had a gentleman come visit and
he's legally blind I think he told me he
could read comfortably a size 18 font
but he applied to be a bagger at another
grocery store and he was accepted he had
done it before for another chain and he
went through the interview process and
was okay went to went to do the in
process and paperwork and stuff like
that the company had all their their
paperwork or the majority of the
paperwork on the computer so he could
digitally sign but the general manager
his store hadn't seen this guy before
comes by and notices that he's looking
at the computer screen through a
magnifying glass and asked him to come
into the office and talk to him found
out he is legally blind and told that
guy basically fired him because he was
already hired right so so you know then
then when I went through I went through
the job description of the bagger with
them during the investigation and asked
him will what what are these items that
you feel that he can't accomplish well
you know we need to keep cooked meat
separate from raw meat so they go to
deli and get a rotisserie chicken and
then go to the you know and they're also
buying a raw chicken
yeah the bagger you'll needs to know not
to put them in the same bag thinking
that have anything to do with even being
able to see I mean you feel right feel
heat but you know it's everything the
guy said no and what did you take him
down I asked the manager said did you
take him down and let him try to do did
you watch him do some of these tests no
so how do you know he can't do
yeah another issue so that we went cause
on that one - okay some of the types of
accommodations that can be done job
restructuring modified work schedules is
a big thing especially when you deal
with someone whose parents or are ill or
you've got a child with autism or
something like that you may be able to
modify your work schedule in order to
take care of that child get them off to
the school or wherever he or she goes
and pick them up at night make sure to
get to the right place
teleworks possible now if teleworks not
available at the job then that might be
a little bit difficult but a lot of
times nowadays it's possible not every
position can tell work obviously though
leave accommodation we we see a lot of
this where we have really restrictive
leave policies where and there's a large
company right now
that we're dealing with who they said if
you run out of your FMLA and I'll talk a
little bit about FMLA - if you run out
of your FMLA then you're out of luck
you can't during the twelve twelve month
period you can't you know you have to
come to work or else you don't have a
job for you and that's really
restrictive leave you can be unpaid
leave which is a always an option now
the courts the federal courts tend to
look at undue hardship for leave now
again it depends on the size of employer
but if you're like for instance a
telecommunications company or you're
doing customer service over the phone
for a large company you're going to have
maybe several dozen of the same type of
employee answering phones and customer
service stuff like that
it doesn't hurt one of the
accommodations we would expect to see is
non paid leave if you don't have any
paid leave left how are the federal
courts have determined that usually six
months or more for any employers a
little bit of a hardship so if you for
instance unfortunately if you do have
cancer and you require a little bit more
than six months leave to get over that
to get to the point where you can come
back to work then that may be an issue
that we can't overcome as far as an
accommodation modifying equipment or
devices and job application procedures
another thing with that blind gentleman
I was talking about one of the things
we're going to have that company do is
is it's one of the things I did do when
I did investigation is I looked at the
online and processing thing they had the
little videos explaining some of the job
procedures and stuff but the videos on
the computer screen was a computer
screen is normal size the videos were
only this big and when you tried to
enlarge the video instead of it going
fullscreen the screen may got bigger but
the video itself stayed small so one of
the things we're going to have that
company do is change how the in
processing works
it couldn't increase the font size for
the for the you know the documents
online that you're supposed to read and
sign that was undoable so those are
things that are going to have to be
changed to fulfill the conciliation
for this type of job readers
interpreters many especially in the
south you have a lot of Hispanics that
don't speak English or have a hard time
there's nothing wrong with having you
know having interpreters available if
necessary okay sign language also yep
absolutely
you can get on WWE lcov find a lot of
information and you'll see here in these
examples of the EEOC cases that Avon
showed you earlier and you'll see some
more up here for the disability those
two sets of slides all these cases were
finalized in the last two months okay so
they're really recent that there's a
third slide later on that I don't know
how old I think that was within the last
six months I talked about the hundred
percent heal policies we don't like to
see that you know people should be able
to not have to take leave when they can
still work you know there should be some
sort of accommodation for everybody to
come back to work unless you're doing
something heavy you know that that's
your entire job is lifting trash camps
into the back of a truck there's there
might not be a whole lot of
accommodation for that unless they
happen to have a job inside the office
that you could do for a couple weeks but
you know once again it's taking a look
at the job functions of size and
employer know that time and attendance
policies can be adjusted sometimes here
are some of the cases like I said these
are in the last month I believe all
these were settled in last month these
aren't the ones that have been filed but
these are the ones actually settled from
EEOC standpoint these we actually
litigated and came up with this or the
conciliation some of these are
conciliation some of them are litigation
you can read those on your FMLA we don't
enforce FMLA that's the department labor
but we do use FMLA as a as it touches
the a DA as an accommodation okay so we
do deal with FMLA a lot but not the
mechanics of it we deal with it as an
accommodation for the ad a harassment is
a big thing
more and more than harassment
allegations coming in just because
someone doesn't like you doesn't mean
that that violates the laws we enforce
okay and we see a lot of that we see a
lot of that we see conflicts between
supervisors and employees due to bad
management skills a lot of times it
unless it has to do with race and we can
prove that sex age and there's really
not a whole lot we can do and that's
what we determined on intake when you
come in to see us that's where it
becomes important that we see any
documentation you have a lot of people
say oh I left at home or whatever it
doesn't do us any good because we do
make an initial assessment whether we're
going to investigate or recommend it for
investigation based on your credibility
based on any any witnesses you might
have based on the any documentation you
have also there are a whole there are
many more things that we look at when
you come in to the office and talk to
one of us
but basically you need to be able to
when you're talking about harassment
it's got to be founded in one of those
laws that we enforce okay race or color
anybody know the difference between race
and color as a as a basis for
discrimination race is black and white
Hispanic agent however that may be color
is the difference between discrimination
within the same race so you deal with
lighter skin and darker skin okay that
happens a lot in Latin America where you
have a heavier when you have a heavier
African influence and some families or
and other families you have a heavier
Spanish influence and/or Indian so you
know you have various shades skin colors
within the same race and that's where a
lot of
times people think that okay from more
Spanish descent so you're more favored
so that's where we get color sex
religion national origin age and
disability genetics should be on there
once again we don't see a lot of we
don't see a lot of harassment based on
genetics sexual harassment of course
you've seen this you should have seen
this time and time again unwelcome
verbal or physical conduct of a sexual
nature this can also go text start to
see that a lot texting and and if it
alters the conditions of employment what
we say when we're dealing with
harassment in the workplace is it's got
to be either severe or pervasive
pervasive means that you getting this
slurs all day long every day you know
every time you come to work you got
somebody that's always calling you names
based on race again or sex or something
that we enforce severe would be more a
one-time thing that's just egregious
like obviously rape would be severe
having the noose you know in your you
know on your workstation when you get to
work that's another severe act an
occasional utterance of a slur not
really enough to do a whole lot right
now these things also change though when
you get into management supervisors and
managers people who have the authority
to hire fire or change your employment
status one way or another these people
we hold as being the same as the company
itself doing it to you they should know
better so anybody who's a manager
supervisor it's pretty much guaranteed
that we're
we're gonna go after it hard because
they should know better
under that got a case right now with
with the company whose general manager
was sexually harassing a 60 year old and
she went on with it for a little while
he's 34 years old she went on four with
the loop for a little while you know he
was kind of like getting in there with
the text messages I don't think she
realized what was going on until he was
actually very crude at one point and and
just because the rest of the company
doesn't know about it where the owner
the company or CEO doesn't know about it
he was a general manager he should know
better so he acts as the company
yes actually yes we consider that now
our district 11th district does not
consider that part of title 7 we do so
sexual orientation we deal with sexual
orientation gender identity anything
like that we we go ahead and and we'll
do charge rather regardless of the if
the district young 11th district doesn't
agree with it we still do that so we'll
we can do charge and we will investigate
a charge and even litigate a charge if
necessary based on that it's eventually
going to happen you know it's it's like
you know a lot of the things it's going
to take a little while it may not take
that much longer but eventually it'll be
recognized
I think nationwide that you know
federally the sexual orientation and
gender identity also fall under Title 7
any questions
examples I'm sure you've seen this again
time and time again
all right see these are some of the
cases here the safety these are the ones
I was telling you that I think use maybe
up to six months old all these should be
sexual harassment or some sort of
harassment suits once again if you go to
the EEOC gov you'll see a newsroom I
think it's on the left-hand side of the
page when you open it up and you'll see
some of the recent filings court filings
and some of the recent settlements which
these are and you can look at this
through the details of the cases some of
them or you'd be like I don't I don't
even know I'm still amazed how how far
we can get into investigation before the
company finally you know says yeah we
did the wrong thing but most the time
they don't even say that they just you
know do the settlement conciliation I've
had one one time where allegations were
made and once they filed the charge I
think the company's lawyer called me I
was on the way home one day lawyer
called me about two weeks afterwards I
said look I started talking to some of
the employees about what the allegations
were in this charge and not talked to
more and more I talked to all but maybe
five employees of the company what can
we do to fix this because it's bad so
that's the only time I've actually had
had you know counsel say yeah they must
stop bad you need to fix it tell us what
to do we'll get it settled right away
hostile work environment once again
we're seeing a lot of hostile work
environment but it's not based on any of
these things that we enforce it doesn't
mean it's right but there's nothing we
can do about it
that's when that right to sue becomes
valuable because we give that to you and
then maybe maybe lawyer can do something
with it in court or and and and again
sometimes as soon as we take a charge we
have ten days by law to to send that to
the employer so the employer a lot of
times when the player sees that you know
and they see that's being known what's
going on within the company even though
it's not made public you know it still
is should be concerning when they see
that you know so maybe the employer
takes steps on their own even though we
don't investigate it to make some of
these Corrections yes
no no not necessarily but but what
happens here is what that means is part
of the settlement process like you've
always talking about you have mediation
there's there are different times when a
settlement comes into effect or in the
investigative process once we take the
charge
mediation is the first step we try to
try to settle things at the lowest
possible level to reduce cost to the
government so if if you were denied a
promotion and you feel like the
promotion would would be good enough
that you settle the case you know and
not move forward with it then and they
agree to that and that's what you know
that can be done during the mediation or
any time yes
I'm not understanding really
this is after you've come to see us
oh if you don't I mean let's that's up
to you it really I mean if you think
that that no no no but yeah in we're not
going to see that and we don't it
doesn't really affect anything we do I
mean we don't get involved with a thing
like that until you because based on the
adverse employment action that is taken
against you so if you actually settle
with them and everything is fine you're
fine but then something happens in the
long run let's say you complain about
discrimination they gave you the
promotion and within those six months
they do something you can file under
retaliation because they it was just
something to fix the situation thinking
that maybe she's not gonna complain wait
the the six months and then they then do
something but then once they do that
that's your first day of the adverse
employment action so you have moving
forward six purpose but then yeah I
should get it in writing you know if I
was you I guess you want to have
something that you can show they don't
have all the promotion right yeah
it's your nose you always have the right
even even if you consider even if you
vote before you always have that right
so we look at that closed noisy game
yeah okay so if you come in in that
situation and you file a retaliation
like Yvonne says because you've made
that complaint and you have to be
specific when you make these complaints
to within the company and we want you to
do that actually before you come here
it's like you can't go to federal court
with you you can because you can do just
about anything but your your suit it's
not going to be entertained in federal
court unless you exhaust your
administrative avenues by coming to us
first okay by the same token we ask that
you go to your company and make them
aware of what's going on so they have
the chance to fix it before we get
involved and so if you do it like that
and you're talking about that and that
happens you've made to protect the
complaint and advance right we would do
this retaliation if something happened
after that because you've already made
the complaint hopefully you have an
email or some sort of tracking that
shows you made that complaint and then
it gave you the promotion as a result
and then after that whatever they did to
you caused you to come in and even
though they can say yeah we gave her a
promotion because she complained
whatever but we see through that yeah
absolutely I mean this is you know we
have to in order yeah
first we'll do that then we have to
investigate yeah yeah and if that wasn't
based on anything so yeah it's it's a
whole process but we nothing sorry you
know it depends on the circumstances and
it is the case like that and then they
did it to fix a situation that the face
was discriminatory
it depends is on a case-by-case basis
but then if they're using the power of
some kind of favoritism based on race or
sex and it's then it could be a
violation so that's why we have to
invest but everybody is going to have
the same right to file a charge
depending on how they feel because at
the end of the day how we feel do you
feel discriminated against and you have
the right to file there's a lot of
things to look at this is why sometimes
these investigations take a little while
how many of you are in the HR area or
something like that working there okay
that this is getting it into part where
this is scared more toward the employer
itself so if you happen to be in a
leadership type position or a position
where you can drive a little bit of the
the policies going on
this is what we ask so HR is I've got
master's a human resources management
and HR is very tricky when you get into
the company because you have the laws
that you have to make sure or followed
but and but then your service in the
company as well and also the employees
so you're you're driving a very thin
line there as far as what you do I
believe this can be found in the EEOC
job as well you should be able search it
yeah task force I'm studying for us in
the worst workplace the employers
responsibilities as far as the laws go
they said to ensure that the employment
decisions are not based on race color
sex religion national origin age
disability genetic information or
retaliation sometimes unintentional
things happen and they create a
disparity between races or sexes and
it's it's actually unintentional but it
turns out to be that way
a good example is the large car
manufacturer that I investigated and to
my knowledge that this charge has not
been set of charges hasn't been resolved
as you get in order to get promoted they
required for two certain like group lead
stuff like that as factory they required
or the applicants for promotion to
aside from seniority and all that kind
of stuff and obviously attendance and
and performance evaluations they're
required to take a test and the test was
more of a psychological type test I
guess to see if they were I guess the
type of person that they want in
leadership positions not bad on the
surface of it but the interesting thing
was is that the workforce was
predominantly african-american in the
factory so you had like say let's say
2/3 was african-american you have 1/3
white and some Hispanic in there but the
numbers of people who applied to be from
each race who applied to be the group
leader for instance if you take the
total number of employees of that race
compared to the number of people who
apply to be group lead and then the
numbers of the races the numbers of each
race actually got the group lead
position the chances of that turning out
the way it did in that factory was 0.7
zeros of a percent of a chance which is
totally outrageous so you find out
there's something wrong so there's
nothing wrong on the surface of things
but the policy when we looked at the
testing we realized that there were some
questions in the test that kind of
tended to weed out African Americans and
I'm not going to tell you what those
questions were but when you look at them
it was it was it was kind of like yeah
you can see where that came from you
know where that might work and these
type of things are very very tricky
testing should not be done for promotion
less it or even for hiring unless
actually pertains to the job being done
if you do have testing testing should be
well we require the companies when they
have testing they're required to go back
and check and see what the results of
that testing is every year and to modify
modify the policy a little bit if it in
this case it shows that the testing
inadvertently favors one group or
another and that that case is still it's
a DC the statisticians a bunch of people
with doctorates are looking at that case
still because it's it's so esoteric as
to what's happening so these are things
that it's not overt discrimination
policies but it's something that's been
going on that after a while you can see
hey you have to ask why if you have a
hundred white people and three hundred
African Americans and everybody wants to
be a supervisor how come seventy-five
percent of Supervisors are so white it
doesn't make sense something's wrong
okay one of the things that help the
companies a lot is once they find out if
they find out that some sort of
violations occurred just to take care of
it immediately things happen and we we
have had people come in to make a file a
charge and what happened to them was
egregious as soon as the company find
out found out what happened they went
and did their best to try to fix it
right then in that case we don't have
you know we usually won't do anything
because the company is trying to make it
better without us having to step in okay
and we're certainly not going to try to
just in the same way we're not going to
accuse the company of doing wrong if
there's no evidence to start a an
investigation we want to kind of
encourage them to keep doing right when
it's
Pizza before we get involved here's your
rights and responsibilities now the
right to work free of discrimination
harassment you may have seen in that one
those first slides it doesn't matter if
you're here legally or illegally as long
as you employed you're employed you have
the same rights all right
to work without harassment there are a
lot a lot a lot of unfortunately
undocumented workers here sexually
harassed every day in the fields and
doing whatever and they don't come to
see us because they're afraid that you
know we're going to talk to the people
who get them out of here or something
you know I don't know what the thought
is there it's it's fear and the
employers prey upon that as well because
they know that's very it's not very
likely that these employer employees
will go forward and say hey I'm being
raped every day in the field or every
every week because they're scared of
being sent oh okay your medical
information should be kept separately
from your regular personnel file and and
but that's something we deal with but
they should not know your medical
information should be out there all
right and you should be able to complain
about the job discrimination without
retaliation all right your
responsibilities don't harass or
discriminate against other people report
discrimination when you see it
preferably again have it in an email or
something like that do you have some
sort of proof you did that request a
reasonable accommodation either
religious or disability when necessary
obtain a copy of the employer handbook
and read it all right
this is it
all right this goes for the employers
you can read out in the slides I'm
getting a long time does anybody have
any questions anything at all yes sir
let's see one undercover
yes George 11th district covers what
well it's mainly Georgia we have an
office about
other states Alabama has something
similar to that as well and I didn't
actually know that Georgia had that so I
would love to have some information if
you could get with me if you if you know
that point of contact and all that
because we one of the things I like to
do personally I think everybody
we don't live just to you know jump on
employers
I actually prefer to go and do something
like this and and educate them
especially smaller companies who are
just starting to come up and I would I
would dearly love to be able to go out
say hey this company you know if you
know if you're at the loss as to what to
do to accommodate this employee talk to
these people because they'll help you
Alabama had I start out in Birmingham
history with the EEOC and they had a
company that was very or organization
that was nonprofit is very helpful and
involved with with those things I'd love
to have it anything else anybody all
right
yup said my card must be I think I ran
out but anytime I've got keep saying
I've got five or six years before I
retire until then send me email if you
have any questions at all I would rather
I would rather help out answer questions
before the problem became the problem
and have to do an investigation although
I get paid either way
but yeah please don't hesitate to call
me or send me e-mail all right thank you
ladies and gentlemen
you