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Ida Castro

On Equal Opportunity

Ida L. Castro, Chairwoman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), talked to IMDiversity Washington Correspondent Kuliva Wilburn about minority workplace issues, fighting discrimination, her work at the EEOC and the issues of working women. The complete interview follows.

Castro:  Our mission is a very noble one, but one very difficult to reach if we’re going to do it all by ourselves; and that is to eliminate discrimination from the workplace. In the past, we’ve not been able to address these concerns to the fullest because of resources. For example, six years ago, when this Administration came on board, the Commission had a back log that exceeded 110,000 cases and receiving, on average every year, 80,000 new cases. It’s staff was at an all time low. It’s budget was at an all time low. So, obviously, these were issues that this administration was very interested in dealing with, and that the new Commission members, of course, were committed to address.

We started doing a number of steps that weren’t resource oriented, but were important in terms of our ability to manage the workload. So we did something called the Priority Charge Handling Process, which in and of itself, has been responsible for slashing our workload by 50%. So that’s certainly a very, very important step. 

I was extremely pleased that my entry as Chairwoman of this Commission coincided with the Administration’s and Congress’ support to an increase of $37M to this agency. Both the President and Congress [were] interested in supporting efforts that would continue to reduce the backlog, and perhaps more importantly, move towards a fairer more efficient process. 

Over the years we’ve received lots of complaints that perhaps the EEOC is not as present as it ought to be, and not at the forefront of the issues as it should be. Certainly the tardiness in addressing individual concerns when they came to us became a big problem with customer service. We had big problems [in our] relationship with employers. So that basically, we had a lot of challenges that we needed to face. 

With the additional dollars, all our problems have not been resolved, but certainly we were placed in the right track. Certainly we received that extra "umph" that we needed to begin to accelerate this process. We established a nationwide mediation program, and already, as of today, we’ve settled more than 3200 cases through this program. We’ve recovered over $40M in this short period of time. It’s been an extremely successful program.

And that program has allowed us, then, to really invest our resources in investigating egregious discrimination cases which are the ones that really require greater visibility because it allows the public to really understand the nature of the problem, the difficulty of the issues that we have to deal with, and understand them rather clearly. One thing that happens when we publicize these cases, is that people clearly understand "this is wrong", and they also understand that it still exists. We need to be ever vigilant on these issues.

Targeting of resources into cases that create greater impact, that are systemic, that are class-wide, is another priority that these new initiatives have committed us to do. 

Also to get at the forefront of issues that are new to the workplace. There are a variety of changes in the workplace that for those of us that have been around in the Federal Government for a long time need to learn about. Many in our staff here left the private world when that private world looked entirely different, worked entirely different and dealt with entirely different issues. So that with the new monies, we’ve been able to hire brand new staff, expand our staff and bring on board individuals that can relate better to the new world of work. 

We’ve also been able to focus and develop internal task forces that will look to this new world of work and find out what impact is happening in the high-tech industry. That’s an issue that the EEOC needs to be at the forefront of. Of course, understanding all of the concerns involved in these issues, and making measured investigations, so that we can come out on the right side of these issues without neglecting our main function, which is the application of the law.

Castro:  In the generic sense, we have identified as under-served communities the Hispanic/Latino community and the Asian-Pacific American community because we understand that the proportion of charges we receive from both of those communities certainly does not represent the level of discrimination that these communities experience on a daily basis in the workplace.

Both communities tend to be young communities that are composed largely of immigrants, and we have a tendency to assume that those of us that have shared common experiences means that the whole world understands them and knows them. We have not had resources to continuously educate and re-educate the workforce as the workforce continues to develop. I mean, even when they’re in school, high school and so-forth. So for the younger workforce, the younger "native" American workforce, I don’t think we’ve done such a good job as a society in terms of telling them and educating them about the workplace and their rights. Imagine people who just got here. They were not here when we had the Civil Rights marches. They were not here when this office was opened. So they don’t have that collective knowledge. The individuals from their own community who could provide this information, perhaps for whatever reason, such as language, 20-30 years ago did not establish that kind of relationship with the EEOC, so that they could spread this resource "word of mouth." Many of them come from countries where they don’t have the experience of seeing a governmental entity as one who will defend their rights.

All of these issues are issues of concern to me. We’re trying to diversify our staff linguistically as well as ethnically and racially. We’re trying to explore other avenues, whether its through the Internet or what have you, where we can reach these communities and make sure they understand that the EEOC is open for business for them too. So we’re also trying to develop cases where we can demonstrate to them that we mean what we say and say what we mean, because we understand that the proof is in the pudding. Unless they see the action, the trust element will not be as well developed as it is in other areas.

In terms of minority disabled, that is certainly a group of individuals that’s generally very hard to reach, for a variety of reasons. The disabled minority tends not to ever be very active in the disability groups – so for us to reach into these communities and find individuals who are minorities and disabled is even a greater challenge. What I have done so far in my oversight of the Federal Sector, is to create a sub-committee as part of the Presidential Task Force for peoples with disabilities. We have a Civil Rights Committee, I Chair that Civil Rights Committee, and within that committee we’ve created a sub-committee called Project Impact. What we’ve done is brought together about 9 Federal agencies spanning from Housing, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Social Security, Department of Labor, EEOC, name it and claim it - any Federal agency that may have a hand in either directly or indirectly empowering disabled individuals to participate fully in our economy, and contribute fully in our economy. So what we’ve done is we’ve brought them together and we’re trying to develop the addressing of issues of outreach, delivery of public services, issues of empowerment and issues of employability and redress of violations of Civil Rights. We hope to start a pilot in Baltimore, we hope that this pilot will be replicable so that we then, together, can work as the Federal Government - as an entity which collaborates and seeks out these individuals effectively and empowers them to contribute to our society just like anyone else, and as I understand it, that’s all they want.

Castro:  Well I think that particularly for your readers, 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.

Castro:  We are trying to develop those appropriate resources. Of course the Asian-Pacific American community poses to us a greater challenge because the languages are multiple, and that’s an issue, again, of resources. We are also exploring the possibility of a multi-lingual web site. All of that, of course, hinders upon resources but we’re trying to be as creative as possible. We’re trying to partner with organizations – not-for-profit organizations throughout the country to see how we can get these things done. But I’m very well aware that it is an issue. Primarily – we won’t get to you if we can’t talk to you. That’s really common sense and very basic. So we will try to do everything possible to overcome those barriers.

Castro:  The best way and the most efficient way is probably to contact their regional offices which are also listed on the web site. I hope there is an immediate response because we do have a very serious commitment to an outreach program. There shouldn’t be for any reason, but if there isn’t a prompt response, they can feel free to contact me or any of the Commissioners here in Washington, and we will facilitate that. I am fully aware that my fellow Commissioners and I have an extraordinary commitment to ensure that we reach out to as many communities as possible. And as diverse as my Commission is, I think that we will be able to facilitate that.

Castro:  Well that’s an interesting question with respect to us, because EEOC as a law enforcement agency really has not been responsible for implementation of Affirmative Action per se. We are, in fact, responsible for ensuring that illegal behavior or conduct will not occur in the workplace. If the remedy requires Affirmative Action types of solutions, we will enforce that, and to the extent that it comes as part of enforcement strategies, I cannot say that the recent development have detracted us from that.

The recent and increasing attacks on Affirmative Action are cause for great concern for me personally. I’ve always been concerned with the media’s ability, and everyone else’s ability to take a good thing and twist it and make it look bad, and I think that that’s what’s happening with this program. As a labor lawyer, again – this is not with my Chairwoman’s hat – certainly I don’t come to this position empty handed. I’ve had a whole life before it and I’ve experienced many things. As a labor lawyer, I only too often saw supervisors that were unwilling to tell their longtime friends that they were not the best qualified for the job, and would blame Affirmative Action instead, and a variety of permutations along those lines, that basically were misapplications of a very good concept and a very good program.

Personally I benefited from Affirmative Action and when I say benefited, I don’t mean that anything has been given to me, because nothing has been given to me, per se. What Affirmative Action has really done for me is, to show me the door. Maybe cracked it, so that I could poke my nose through it. But it certainly the responsibility, the determination to open that door, walk through that door, and stay in that room has been mine. No one has given it to me. I went to Law School through a Minority Student program. I will tell you quite honestly, Affirmative Action starts with two A’s, but in Law School, I had to sweat out each and every "A" I got. Affirmative Action did not give me a thing! Nothing! Nothing, except show me the door. It was up to me to walk through it and stay in there and compete with everyone else.

So it saddens me when I hear individuals talk about Affirmative Action as if something were free, or someone was a so-called "beneficiary." It’s very difficult. I tell this to young women all the time, particularly young girls. What’s important about these kinds of things is that at a very early age, children, whether its women or minorities, need to know what their options are. That’s what opportunity is all about. But if you live in a world where you only see one door, and all the other doors are invisible to you, a program that shows you that there are 10 doors, not just one, can’t be bad. The other 9 doors are being seen by other kids every day. As a matter of fact, most of the other groups never get to see the "one door" you’re looking at. That’s what it’s all about. Our responsibility is that everyone knows where the doors are. And it’s up to them, really, whether they prepare to walk through them. Whether they can stay and withstand the competition. That’s really up to them. But we have a responsibility for saying we’re not going to hide these doors anymore.

Castro:  Let me first say that yes, it’s true that Women have basically accomplished during this century in particular and in particular the latter part of this century, the very recent history of the last 30-40 years – women have accomplished many of the things we have been struggling to accomplish for the past hundreds of years. So in that sense, I don’t want to be like I can’t see the obvious. We have certainly moved to great strides. I’m not that old, and I can tell you that from when I was a kid till now the changes have been absolutely incredible.

I don’t know one working woman, whether she’s a head of household or not, who deliberately chooses low paying jobs, and I’ve met a lot of working women in my life, given my career trajectory. And I’ve not met one that tells me, "yeah, I want a low paying job." I’ve meet women that tell me, "well, I’ve chosen this particular job because it’s the only one I have access to," or "it’s the only one that will give me the flexibility" to tend to either children, ailing parents, ailing spouses or all three. But I’ve not seen that deliberate choice for lower wages, or longer hours or worse working conditions. I actually haven’t seen that in men either, so I think that’s on equalizer right there. Certainly these conditions remain with women. 

There is a wage gap, that in my opinion is simply unacceptable and inexcusable, and that we as a society have to work to eliminate. I was a single parent myself and the loss of 20-30% of your salary, or even more if you’re Latina, which is about in excess of 40%, is really devastating for the quality of life and the standard of living for your family. Not just you, your entire family.

Men in your family have to overcome that gap, and if there’s more than one woman in your family, somehow they have to overcome all of these gaps, right? That doesn’t make sense for our society. It’s not economically wise. It is also not to the benefit of employers. I think that to remain competitive in the current world of work, particularly nowadays when you’re talking about globalization, in a fiercely competitive market, you need access all of the talent, and it can’t be by exclusion of gender. Or for that matter, race, national origin or sexual orientation. It just does not pay off, it’s not smart, it’s not good for the bottom line. So, I think that women, as the new century comes about, need to continue to make sure that we just don’t pay lip service to issues like Family Leave.

I read with great interest the WITTY report, published by Women in Technology, because at least anecdotally it shows the commonality of the experience of women in other industries as well. Much is said about "family friendly" workplaces. However it seems that the pay structure, the promotion structure, the reward structure of these work places are not changing in pace with the "family friendly" structures. If you avail yourself of these benefits you pay dearly in terms of your career. I think we can continue to make great strides at the turn of the new century to make the workplace far more equitable for both genders, and as a result to remain number one as a country. I’m hopeful.

Castro:  Boy – that’s a good one. It’s always, I suppose, the balancing act. When I was 20, there were many challenges that I had to face in that environment because there were far less women in those kinds of positions. Yet the real difficulty is balancing your family and your community interests with your career interests and it seems that regardless of your good faith, something falls through the cracks. If its family, that’s something that carries great weight. I was very fortunate to get a lot of support from extended family, if you will. From friends and neighbors that would help me out, but I do understand that all too many of us have not had that option. So I think that was probably one of the toughest hurdles to overcome.

In terms of being the first. I’ve been a first in several occasions. I should probably say it with greater pride, except that I’m always concerned when I’m the first in anything. It just reminds me in how late in coming that it is. So, although I’m honored and pleased to be the first Latina to head this agency, I’m equally pained that I am the first. I would certainly like to see our society reach a point where saying the first of anything is no longer of relevance, because we are in every place – as women, as Latinas, as Blacks, as Asian-Pacific Americans…whatever group. I think, regrettably, that we’ve got a long way to go in that regard, and that being said, I will try to do my best to open those doors for everyone. 

Related Reading

• Ida Castro on How to File Discrimination and Harassment Complaints with the EEOC
  By Kuliva Wilburn, IMDiversity Contributor