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How to File Discrimination and Harassment Complaints
Ida Castro, Chairwoman of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, explains what to do if you need to file a
discrimination or harassment complaint and what you can expect to happen
when you file.
By Kuliva Wilburn, IMDiversity
Contributor
Wilburn: What are the correct procedures that should be
followed when you are prepared to file a complaint with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission?
Castro: Step number one would be to visit our web site
because you can get pretty good guidance on what are your rights, where
you can go to file charges, and where you can go to seek further advice.
Our process is relatively simple. It’s a matter of filing a charge with
one of our offices.
We then have the responsibility of investigating that charge. We will
work with the charging party to seek any witnesses or any supporting
information that is necessary to support that charge. If the charge is
meritorious, we find cause, and it falls within our priority, certainly
we have the wherewithal to prosecute that charge and actually take it to
court. So, certainly it’s the first step, and it’s the first step
required by law. They have to, and should, come to us first.
My commitment is for a fair and efficient process, so that you don’t
languish waiting for an investigation. I am extremely sensitive to that
– to customer service with the fundamental understanding that when
you’re being discriminated against, what you want is for it to stop. And
if you’re going to go to an agency that’s supposed to intervene in your
behalf, you want the agency to intervene fairly and swiftly because you
want to end this action, and you want to seek redress as quickly as
possible. We are trying to do everything possible to accomplish that.
The Comprehensive Enforcement Plan is directed to increasing customer
service by reducing the amount of time that it will take us to
investigate this charge. It does this by basically taking all of our
resources both legal and investigative, and focusing them on cases that
are clear priorities at the onset, so that we can prosecute those
deliberately and diligently and so that we can process all others
through all alternative dispute resolution means. This way we can get
quick redress, and try to reduce the amount of time that it takes for
any individual to get their wrongs, right.
For directions on filing a complaint see:
http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/howtofil.html
To find your nearest EEOC office see:
http://www.eeoc.gov/offices.html
Related Reading
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Ida Castro on Equal Opportunity
By Kuliva Wilburn, IMDiversity Contributor
Full Q&A on minority workplace issues, fighting discrimination, her
work as the first Latina chair of the EEOC and the issues of working
women
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