Reorganization Specifics (cont'd)

Specifically, the new plan:

• Expands the disparity between districts in terms of the size of the populations they serve and the geographic areas they encompass. Eleven of the remaining fifteen districts have seen the populations served increase by more than 10 percent; eight have risen by 30 percent or more. The population served by the San Francisco district would increase by 84 percent, while the population served by the Indianapolis district would more than double, rising 152 percent. Yet, neither of these offices is adding line staff.
• Added at least one additional layer of bureaucracy to the former district offices, making it more difficult for the EEOC to assist victims of discrimination. Invites discrimination in less populous states, especially those far removed from EEOC offices. The populations of states like Montana, Wyoming and Oklahoma geographically are far removed from understaffed and over worked EEOC offices, leaving those populations underserved and vulnerable.
• Increase reliance on a national call center, which trivializes reporting of workplace discrimination and makes the interaction with the EEOC impersonal and distant.
• With the exception of managers, fails to address a 3-year hiring freeze, which impairs the EEOC’s ability to investigate allegations of discrimination, conduct hearings, litigate or mediate.

Conclusion
Illegal workplace discrimination is unacceptable and is illegal under the law. If anything, the EEOC and the administration are sending out the message that the opposite is the case by weakening an employee’s best chance for fair and lawful treatment. AFGE will confront this growing problem by launching a public awareness campaign designed to compel members of Congress to increase the EEOC’s funding for front line staff and technology advances and halt the destruction of an agency under the guise of “reorganization.”

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