HRC_Columbus

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) finished fiscal year 2011 with a ten percent decrease in its pending charge inventory—the first such reduction since 2002, achieved the highest ever monetary amounts through administrative enforcement, and received a record number of charges of discrimination, the agency reported in its annual Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) filed today.

The EEOC received a record 99,947 charges of discrimination in fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30, the highest number of charges in the agency’s 46-year history.  EEOC staff also delivered historic relief through administrative enforcement—more than $364.6 million in monetary benefits for victims of workplace discrimination.  This is also the highest level obtained in the Commission’s history.  The fiscal year ended with 78,136 pending charges—a decrease of 8,202 charges, or ten percent. In previous years, the pending inventory had increased as staffing declined 30 percent between fiscal years 2000 and 2008.

“I am proud of the work of our employees and believe this demonstrates what can be achieved when we are given resources to enforce the nation’s laws prohibiting employment discrimination,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien. “The EEOC was able to strategically manage existing resources and take full advantage of increased resources in the past two fiscal years to make significant progress towards effective enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws.”

Due to EEOC’s enforcement programs in both the private and federal sectors, 5.4 million individuals benefitted from changes in employment policies or practices in their workplace during the past fiscal year.  Additionally, EEOC’s public outreach and education programs reached approximately 540,000 persons directly.

The agency continued to build a strong national systemic enforcement program. At the end of the fiscal year, there were 580 systemic investigations involving more than 2,000 charges under way.  EEOC field legal units filed 261 lawsuits—23 of which involved systemic allegations affecting large numbers of people; 61 had multiple victims (less than 20); and 177 were individual lawsuits.   

The EEOC’s private sector national mediation program also achieved historic highs, obtaining more than $170 million in monetary benefits for complainants, and securing the highest number of resolutions in the history of the program—9,831.  This is five percent more than the number of resolutions reported in fiscal year 2010.

In the federal sector, where the EEOC has different enforcement obligations, the Commission resolved a total of 7,672 requests for hearings, securing more than $58 million in relief for parties who requested hearings.  It also resolved 4,510 appeals from final agency determinations.

The EEOC’s FY 2011 PAR is posted on the agency’s web site at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/plan/index.cfm. Comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for fiscal year 2011 will be available in early 2012.

Final Judgment of $415,000 to be Awarded to Disabled Former Employee

PEORIA, Ill. — A federal court  has ordered AutoZone, Inc., a leading auto parts retailer, to reasonably  accommodate the disabilities of its retail employees throughout central Illinois, the U.S. Equal  Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today. Entering final judgment in a disability  discrimination suit brought by the EEOC, the court also held the company liable  for $415,000 in damages and lost wages and $9,045 in litigation costs.

On  June 3, 2011, a federal jury found that AutoZone violated the Americans With  Disabilities Act (ADA) when it failed to accommodate the disability of a sales  manager at its Macomb, Ill. store.  At trial, the EEOC presented evidence that the employee was required to  perform cleaning tasks that violated his medical restrictions and resulted in  an injury and severe physical pain. The  sales manager, who worked at the company until 2003, is disabled with permanent  back and neck impairments. Under the ADA, a reasonable  accommodation may include the elimination or modification of a non-essential  job duty, or the transfer of a non-essential job duty to another employee.

In  an order dated Nov. 8, 2011, the court granted the EEOC’s post-trial request  for an injunction, in part, finding that “the conduct of the defendant’s  managerial employees at the highest level was clearly an intentional violation  of the ADA” and  that there was a “possibility of future infractions.” The injunction applies to all of the  company’s retail stores within the Central District of Illinois, a federal  judicial district encompassing 46 Illinois  counties. AutoZone will also be required  to report all requests for reasonable accommodations in that region to the EEOC  for a period of three years, and to maintain records of the company’s responses  to such requests for a period of four years.

The  court rejected a request by AutoZone to reduce the jury’s award of compensatory  and punitive damages below the statutory maximum of $300,000. Citing evidence of the sales manager’s “near  daily pain for 6 months and … need for physical therapy and other medical  attention,” the court upheld the jury’s award of $100,000 in compensatory  damages. The court reduced the jury’s  punitive damages award from $500,000 to $200,000, in order to bring total  damages within the $300,000 statutory cap.  The court declined to reduce the award any further, however, noting that  it was supported by evidence that the company’s managers “knew of but chose to  ignore their obligations under the ADA”  to accommodate the employee’s disability.  The court additionally found AutoZone liable for $115,000 in lost wages,  and $9,045 in litigation costs incurred by the EEOC.

“Over the past year, the EEOC has filed more than 60  cases nationwide challenging disability discrimination,” said EEOC General  Counsel P. David Lopez. “This victory demonstrates  that the Commission will continue to dismantle barriers to employment for  people with disabilities. Employers  mustmake decisions based ontheir employee’s abilities, and not on  their disabilities.”

At  trial, the government was represented by EEOC Trial Attorneys Justin Mulaire  and Aaron DeCamp. The EEOC’s district  court litigation was supervised by Supervisory Trial Attorney Gregory  Gochanour. The trial followed a  successful appeal of an earlier summary judgment ruling in the Seventh Circuit  Court of Appeals (EEOC v. AutoZone, 630 F.3d 635 (7th Cir. 2010)). On appeal, the government was represented by  Attorney Eric A. Harrington and Assistant General Counsel Carolyn L. Wheeler,  both of the EEOC’s Appellate Services unit.

“The  EEOC’s primary goal in filing suit is to prevent and deter future violations of  the law,” said Mulaire. “We hope today’s  judgment will help ensure that, going forward, employees with disabilities have  a fair opportunity to succeed at AutoZone.”

John  Hendrickson, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Chicago, said, “While we are able  to resolve most of our litigation through settlement, this case illustrates the  EEOC’s commitment to litigating cases to judgment when necessary to vindicate  the public interest. The objective of  every EEOC case, whether large or small, is the same: to make equal employment  opportunity the reality in the workplace.”

The EEOC filed suit in  2007, after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement. The case was filed  in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Peoria Division,  was designated Civil Action No. 07-cv-1154, and was assigned to U.S. Magistrate  Judge John A. Gorman for all purposes, including trial and entry of judgment.

The  EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the agency is  available on its website at www.eeoc.gov.

LET”S NOT HAVE HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF……

On this day in 1938, in an event that would foreshadow the Holocaust, German Nazis launch a campaign of terror against Jewish people and their homes and businesses in Germany and Austria. The violence, which continued through November 10 and was later dubbed “Kristallnacht,” or “Night of Broken Glass,” after the countless smashed windows of Jewish-owned establishments, left approximately 100 Jews dead, 7,500 Jewish businesses damaged and hundreds of synagogues, homes, schools and graveyards vandalized. An estimated 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, many of whom were then sent to concentration camps for several months; they were released when they promised to leave Germany. Kristallnacht represented a dramatic escalation of the campaign started by Adolf Hitler in 1933 when he became chancellor to purge Germany of its Jewish population.

The Nazis used the murder of a low-level German diplomat in Paris by a 17-year-old Polish Jew as an excuse to carry out the Kristallnacht attacks. On November 7, 1938, Ernst vom Rath was shot outside the German embassy by Herschel Grynszpan, who wanted revenge for his parents’ sudden deportation from Germany to Poland, along with tens of thousands of other Polish Jews. Following vom Rath’s death, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ordered German storm troopers to carry out violent riots disguised as “spontaneous demonstrations” against Jewish citizens. Local police and fire departments were told not to interfere. In the face of all the devastation, some Jews, including entire families, committed suicide.

In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Nazis blamed the Jews and fined them 1 billion marks (or $400 million in 1938 dollars) for vom Rath’s death. As repayment, the government seized Jewish property and kept insurance money owed to Jewish people. In its quest to create a master Aryan race, the Nazi government enacted further discriminatory policies that essentially excluded Jews from all aspects of public life.

Over 100,000 Jews fled Germany for other countries after Kristallnacht. The international community was outraged by the violent events of November 9 and 10. Some countries broke off diplomatic relations in protest, but the Nazis suffered no serious consequences, leading them to believe they could get away with the mass murder that was the Holocaust, in which an estimated 6 million European Jews died.