According to a new report from the EEOC, the amount of money awarded to complainants who filed EEO appeals was up 18.2% in FY 2012 over the previous fiscal year.
As a result of final agency decisions, settlement agreements, and final agency actions fully implementing EEOC Administrative Judges’ decisions, agencies paid monetary benefits to EEO complainants totaling $51.4 million in FY 2012, up 18.2% from the $43.5 million paid in FY 2011. An additional $10.8 million was paid out in response to appellate decisions, a 17.4% increase from the $9.2 million paid out in FY 2011.
Other highlights from the report include:
- In FY 2012, 15,026 individuals filed 15,837 complaints alleging employment discrimination against the federal government.
- The number of complaints filed decreased by 6.7% over the previous year and there was a 4.9% decrease in the number of individuals who filed complaints over the same period. In FY 2012, 5.1% of the complaints were filed by individuals who had filed at least one other complaint during the year, down from the 6.9% in FY 2011.
- Government-wide, a total of 10,226 investigations were completed in an average of 187 days in FY 2012. There were 74.9%, of the investigations (7,660) timely completed, up slightly from FY 2011’s 74.7% timely completion rate. Without the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) investigations, the government-wide average was 66.4%, which is an increase from the 65.3% timely completion rate in FY 2011.
- Agencies issued 4,118 merit decisions without a decision by an EEOC Administrative Judge, and 48.6% were timely issued (2,003), down from 56.5% timely issued in FY 2011. Without the USPS’ merit decisions, the government-wide average dropped to 31.1%.
- In FY 2012, allegations of race discrimination were made in 37.5% of all complaints, equal to the 37.5% of all complaints filed in FY 2011. In FY 2012, there was a 5.5% decrease in the number of complaints filed since FY 2008, and the percentage of complaints alleging discrimination based on race also decreased by 5.3%. During that same period, the percentage of complaints filed alleging discrimination based on color increased 11.6%, from 1,653 in FY 2008 to 1,844 in FY 2012.
