EEOC Reports Uptick in Systemic Discrimination Case

The article, “EEOC Reports Uptick in Systemic Discrimination Case” featured in Corporate Counsel, highlights a report from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that shows the agency has ramped up its work on systemic discrimination cases, achieving a significant increase in the number of these matters investigated annually since 2011.

Randall Coffey weighed in on the uptick in systemic discrimination cases.

Randy said that the prioritization of systemic cases may come at the detriment of the commission's appetite to pursue individual claims, especially with an agency budget that isn't expanding in proportion to the EEOC's ambitions.

"In some measure," he said, "they are really putting their eggs in one basket and it may make good sense from the EEOC's perspective to do that, but it doesn't leave them a lot of resources to devote to individual charges."

Randy said that even though the EEOC can bring its own litigation irrespective of whether workers are bound by arbitration agreements, the commission will be likely on the lookout for them anyway, as part of its efforts to spot systemic cases. "The EEOC will probably give employers who have those kinds of plans greater scrutiny," he said.

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