The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, John Gage, said that while streamlining the employee appeals process is necessary, the commission proposed by the subcommittee would be too large, have “too broad a mandate, would take too long to deliberate over unnecessary recommendations, and would lack any real credibility because its make-up is too heavily weighted in favor of political appointees.”
Like the FLRA’s Cabaniss, Gage said he was concerned such a body would not be objective, and cited the A-76 commission from 2001 — 2002, calling it little more than a diversion while the administration pressed forward with its privatization agenda and it wasted participants’ time.
However, Gage agreed that the EEOC needs additional funding to tackle a huge case backlog, that its investigative process needs to be improved, and that the procedure for mixed cases containing both an adverse action and allegations of discrimination needs to be improved.
AFGE also recommended permitting employees to choose a single forum — the Merit Systems Protection Board, EEOC, or arbitration — to decide all issues in accordance with established case law, something that has the potential to reduce the amount of time management has to spend in defending its decisions.