Fedweek Legal

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on January 26 released implementing rules under the No Fear Act regarding the posting of EEO complaint processing data. The rules tell agencies what information to post on the agency’s public Web site, how to post it, and when to post it. These rules are effective, but subject to change based on public comments.

The interim rule requires each agency to prominently post on its primary Web home page a link to the data required to be posted under the act and designate the link and that data as “Equal Employment Opportunity Data Posted Pursuant to the No Fear Act.” This is to make finding and then viewing the data as easy as possible, with a minimum of navigation clicks or jumps. An agency also must prominently post the date its data was last updated.

The act and implementing rules require detailed reporting. For example, the act requires an agency to post the number of EEO complaints filed with it in a given fiscal year, the number of individuals who file, and the basis and issue for each complaints. The bases protected by the EEO statutes are race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, age, and retaliation. To the extent any other “basis” is alleged (e.g., marital status, parental status, union membership), the rule contemplates that such basis will be listed in a “non-EEO basis” category. The issue of a complaint is the alleged discriminatory incident for which the individual seeks redress.

In addition, the Act requires an agency to post the average length of time it takes an agency to complete “each step of the process” for every complaint that is pending during any time of the then fiscal year. The agency also must post the total number of final actions by an agency involving a finding of discrimination. EEOC interprets this to mean that an agency must post the total number of complaints in which the agency’s final action addresses a finding of discrimination whether that finding is rendered by the agency or an administrative judge. Findings of discrimination sorted by issue, basis and whether there was a hearing, must also be posted.

Finally, the act requires that an agency look at all complaints pending in the current fiscal year, determine how many of the complaints were not timely investigated, and post that total number of complaints. The regulations eliminated the proposed requirement that posting be revised when complaints are amended, for example to include a claim or retaliation.

** This information is provided by the attorneys at Passman & Kaplan, P.C., a law firm dedicated to the representation of federal employees worldwide. For more information on Passman & Kaplan, P.C., go to

http://www.passmanandkaplan.com. **