The laws enforced by EEOC, except for the Equal Pay Act, require you to file a charge before you can file a lawsuit for unlawful discrimination. There are strict time limits for filing a charge. Where the discrimination took place can determine how long you have to file a charge. The calendar-day filing deadline is extended to calendar days if a state or local agency enforces a state or local law that prohibits employment discrimination on the same basis. The rules are slightly different for age discrimination charges.
For age discrimination, the filing deadline is only extended to days if there is a state law prohibiting age discrimination in employment and a state agency or authority enforcing that law. The deadline is not extended if only a local law prohibits age discrimination. A Charge of Discrimination can be completed through our online system after you submit an online inquiry and we interview you. You have 30 days from the day you first learned of the agency's failure to comply to give the EEO Director this notice.
The agency must respond to you in writing to try and settle the conflict. If the agency does not respond, or if you are not satisfied with the agency's response, you can appeal to EEOC's Office of Federal Operations for a decision about whether the agency has complied with the terms of the settlement agreement.
You must file your appeal within 30 days from the day you receive the agency's response or, if the agency does not respond, after 35 days have passed from the day you notified the agency's EEO Director of the agency's failure to comply. You must give the agency a copy of your appeal. The agency will then have 30 days to respond. Although you don't have to be represented by a lawyer during the complaint process, you have the right to have a lawyer if you want one.
You can also ask someone who is not a lawyer to represent you, or you can represent yourself. The EEOC will not represent you during the complaint process, and we will not appoint a lawyer to represent you.
If new events that you believe are discriminatory take place after you file your complaint, you can add them to your complaint. This is called "amending" a complaint. To amend your complaint, you should write the agency's EEO Office, describe what happened, and ask that the new events be included in your complaint. If you are sent to counseling and the matter cannot be settled there, you have the right to file a new complaint that includes the new events.
If you have 60 days or fewer in which to file a timely charge, the EEOC Public Portal will provide special directions for quickly providing necessary information to the EEOC and how to file your charge quickly. The laws enforced by the EEOC require the agency to accept charges alleging employment discrimination.
If the laws do not apply to your claims, if the charge was not filed within the law's time limits, or if the EEOC decides to limit its investigation, the EEOC will dismiss the charge without any further investigation and notify you of your legal rights. Many states and local jurisdictions have their own anti-discrimination laws, and agencies responsible for enforcing those laws Fair Employment Practices Agencies , or FEPAs.
You do not need to file with both agencies. The person must initiate counselor contact within 45 days of the matter alleged to be discriminatory. Section This time limit shall be extended where the aggrieved person shows that: he or she was not notified of the time limits and was not otherwise aware of them; he or she did not and reasonably should not have known that the discriminatory matter occurred; despite due diligence he or she was prevented by circumstances beyond his or her control from contacting the counselor within the time limits.
EEO counselors provide information to the aggrieved individual concerning how the federal sector EEO process works, including time frames and appeal procedures, and attempt to informally resolve the matter. At the initial counseling session, counselors must advise individuals in writing of their rights and responsibilities in the EEO process, including the right to request a hearing before an EEOC administrative judge or an immediate final decision from the agency following its investigation of the complaint.
Individuals must be informed of their right to elect between pursuing the matter in the EEO process under part and a grievance procedure where available or the Merit Systems Protection Board appeal process where applicable. The counselor must also inform the individuals of their right to proceed directly to court in a lawsuit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, of their duty to mitigate damages, and that only claims raised in pre-complaint counseling may be alleged in a subsequent complaint filed with the agency.
Counseling must be completed within 30 days of the date the aggrieved person contacted the agency's EEO office to request counseling. If the matter is not resolved in that time period, the counselor must inform the individual in writing of the right to file a discrimination complaint. This notice "Notice of Final Interview" must inform the individual that a complaint must be filed within 15 days of receipt of the notice, identify the agency official with whom the complaint must be filed, and of the individual's duty to inform the agency if he or she is represented.
The day counseling period may be extended for an additional 60 days: 1 where the individual agrees to such extension in writing; or 2 where the aggrieved person chooses to participate in an ADR procedure.
If the claim is not resolved before the 90th day, the Notice of Final Interview described above must be issued to the individual. When a complaint is filed, the EEO counselor must submit a written report to the agency's EEO office concerning the issues discussed and the actions taken during counseling. Beginning January 1, all agencies were required to establish or make available an ADR program. Such program must be available for both the pre-complaint process and the formal complaint process.
At the initial counseling session, counselors must advise individuals that, where an agency agrees to offer ADR in a particular case, the individual may choose between participation in the ADR program and EEO counseling.
As noted above, if the matter is not resolved in the ADR process within 90 days of the date the individual contacted the agency's EEO office, a Notice of Final Interview must be issued to the individual giving him or her the right to proceed with a formal complaint.
A complaint must be filed with the agency that allegedly discriminated against the complainant within 15 days of receipt of the Notice of Final Interview. The complaint must be a signed statement from the complainant or the complainant's attorney, containing the complainant's or representative's telephone number and address, and must be sufficiently precise to identify the complainant and the agency, and describe generally the action or practice which forms the basis of the complaint.
A complainant may amend a complaint at any time prior to the conclusion of the investigation to include issues or claims like or related to those raised in the complaint.
After requesting a hearing, a complainant may file a motion with the AJ to amend a complaint to include issues or claims like or related to those raised in the complaint. The agency must acknowledge receipt of the complaint in writing and inform the complainant of the date on which the complaint was filed, of the address of the EEOC office where a request for a hearing should be sent, that the complainant has the right to appeal the agency's final action or dismissal of a complaint, and that the agency must investigate the complaint within days of the filing date.
The agency's acknowledgment must also advise the complainant that when a complaint has been amended, the agency must complete the investigation within the earlier of: 1 days after the last amendment to the complaint; or 2 days after the filing of the original complaint.
A complainant may request a hearing from an EEOC AJ on the consolidated complaints any time after days from the date of the first filed complaint. If an agency believes that some, but not all, of the claims in a complaint should be dismissed for the above reasons, it must notify the complainant in writing of the rationale for this determination, identify the allegations which will not be investigated, and place a copy of this notice in the investigative file.
This determination shall be reviewable by an EEOC AJ if a hearing is requested on the remainder of the complaint, but is not appealable until final action is taken by the agency on the remainder of the complaint. Investigations are conducted by the respondent agency. The agency must develop an impartial and appropriate factual record upon which to make findings on the claims raised by the complaint.
An appropriate factual record is defined in the regulations as one that allows a reasonable fact finder to draw conclusions as to whether discrimination occurred. The investigation must be completed within days from the filing of the complaint. A copy of the investigative file must be provided to the complainant, along with a notification that, within 30 days of receipt of the file, the complainant has the right to request a hearing and a decision from an EEOC AJ or may request an immediate final decision from the agency.
An agency may make an offer of resolution to a complainant who is represented by an attorney at any time after the filing of a complaint, but not later than the date an AJ is appointed to conduct a hearing.
An agency may make an offer of resolution to a complaint, represented by an attorney or not, after the parties have received notice than an administrative judge has been appointed to conduct a hearing, but not later than 30 days prior to a hearing.
0コメント