Average time to issue a final decision was 178 days in 2021, up from 162 days in 2018. In that time, the percentage of decisions issued within 60 days fell from 61 to 47 percent. Image: Burdun Iliya/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA key stage in the process for EEO complaints—issuance of a “final agency decision”—is slowing down and the average time for such a decision is now triple the standard, the EEOC has said.
In the EEO process, individual agencies first conduct an investigation and the employee then has the choice of requesting a final agency decision or appealing directly to an EEOC administrative judge. If employees choose the first route, the agency is to issue such a decision within 60 days; employees who are dissatisfied then may file an appeal with the EEOC.
In a survey to which more than 60 agencies responded, the EEOC said that average time to issue such decisions was 178 days in 2021, up from 162 days in 2018. In that time, the percentage of decisions issued within 60 days fell from 61 to 47 percent.
Agencies cited as the most common reasons for not issuing decisions in a timely way the complexity of certain types of decisions; heavy caseloads; turnover among those writing the decisions; and budgetary constraints. The survey also found, though, that 53 percent of agencies provided training to decision writers only “as needed” and another 12 percent never provided it.
Among agencies with high levels of timely decisions, the survey cited leadership making it a priority; giving the decision writers sufficient time; training; and use of attorneys and others well versed in EEO law as writers. About half of agencies use only in-house employees for writing decisions while the rest also rely on contractors at least as needed, it said.
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