My first EEOC situation

bgrimes · April 2002

Help, guys. I am about to experience my first EEOC attack! What am I in for? I have a former employee who is a female over 40 who was let go in October '01. She was terminated for extreme excessive absence. She held the position of 'receptionist' which you know must be 'manned' at all times. She had been counseled regarding the absences twice. She was placed on a probation period and told she could not miss anymore time in a 3 month period except for a bona fide emergency or else. During that time she called in that she was 'broke down' on the highway. It was ALWAYS SOMETHING with her. She is now making a claim of 'age discrimination' stating that another younger employee that missed as much as her was not disciplined or discharged. She did not name the other employee. The EEOC sent a letter of claim and called this morning. I have yet to get back with them. Have you been through this? What am I to expect? She was here a little under 7 months.

Robert Kaiser MO · April 2002

Sounds like a straightforward one for your first one. You should bone up on EEO law so that you know what they are looking for, and what you do not want to give them. Just because they ask for something does not mean you are obligated to give it to them. On the other hand you should be cooperative. They will likely ask about your attendance policy, her warnings, and your treatment of younger employees with attendance problems. Be very guarded in making sweeping comments about your practice (ie: "All employees are disciplined in this way...") You may get stuck with your words later, even if they were innocent. You may decide that you need competent legal counsel to guide you through the process, at least until you've handled several and get the lay of the land.

Don D · April 2002

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-02-02 AT 01:33PM (CST)[/font][p]I agree with Robert that you might want to get legal counsel on what actually to submit to the EEOC in response to their request. We have one attorney in my city whose absolute concrete policy is to submit nothing. The other extreme, of course, is to answer each line item of the request with a sumittal. They often present a laundry list including: complete organizational chart, list of all employees by sex, race, age, and date of hire; personnel file of all Ee's terminated for all reasons in past 12 months with a corresponding list identifying characteristics, copy of your personnel handbook and any and all policies written or verbal. It can get real lengthy, I suppose depending on which district office oversees your local EEOC office. I think you should be able to figure out which younger female employee was retained with more infractions. In all likelihood, the EEOC will request that file by name. Last advice: Don't be intimidated and be cooperative without actually bending over backwards. Also, if you're relatively new there, talk to your supervisor or the president of the company to find out how previous EEOC charges, if any,have been handled historically, and take a look at the files if you can locate them. This will give you an indication of how the company responded to earlier charges and will give you an indication of which lawyer was involved and how it was handled all the way to closure.......oh, and do talk to a local labor law attorney who has handled EEOC position statements and cases for employer's in your city or general area.

pv25 · April 2002

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-02-02 AT 06:32PM (CST)[/font][p]Try here: [link:www.elinfonet.com/fedarticles/22/8|EEOC Charges]

System · April 2002

bgrimes,

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Rockie · April 2002

You can respond to these charges yourself and I assume that you have good documentation on all absences. You will be fine as long as there is not a case of where a "younger" person was not disciplined in the same manner as the terminated employee.

EEOC does ask for a ton of "stuff" as has been alluded to by one of the respondents. If you are unfamiliar with this process, I would highly recommend that you let a good labor law attorney look at your documents after you gather them.

Usually, as long as you have the documentation in place, you won't have any problems.

Good luck!

njjel · April 2002

Your company may even have insurance that covers this and therefore the insurance company would provide the labor counsel for you. Check with your controller he/she may know if you have insurance coverage for this.

Theresa Gegen TX · April 2002

Also, I would just ask the EEOC investigator if the charging party could identify that "younger employee" she is referring to, so that you can specifically address it in the response. I have had good results asking the EEOC investigators for that type of information.

Good Luck

gimper · April 2002

You've been given good advice.

One other thing you may need to consider is if your company has any insurance for this type of thing, the insurance company will need to be notified and they may assign a legal representative to the case.
We just came through such a situation.

I am curious as to the age and of ther person who replaced this receptionist. It may or may not have any effect.

Good luck.

Gillian · April 2002

You have already received lots of good advice, but one more thing. What usually happens in these situations is that the EEOC person asks for all sorts of information, much of which is really not relevant to the issues. They do that, in part, because all they have is one persons side of the story. Most of the investigators are open to a request to reduce the volume of material that they are asking for when the company rep. calls, explains the issues and the fact that certain material is not germane to the issues.

My first EEOC situation

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