EEOC Faces Furlough Due To Budget Shortfalls, Extending Wait Times For Discrimination Cases

EEOC employees were notified that they would all have to take one work day's worth of unpaid leave.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced to its estimated 2,200 employees that they would be furloughed for one day in August due to a budget shortfall.

According to USA Today, the employees were notified that they would all have to take one work day’s worth of unpaid leave on Aug. 30 due to an unplanned shortage in funding from the Congressional budget.

According to the EEOC website, while the furlough is in place, “The agency will ensure that no private sector charging party loses their right to file a timely charge of discrimination or federal complainant loses their right to file an appeal or request for reconsideration. Additionally, the agency will continue to litigate in cases where an extension has not been granted.”

The EEOC continued, “While charges will be accepted, they will not be investigated, Staff will not be available to answer questions from the public, or to respond to correspondence, emails, or faxes from the public; Insofar as the courts grant EEOC’s requests for extensions of time, EEOC will not litigate in the federal courts; Mediations will be cancelled; Federal sector hearings will be cancelled, and federal employees’ appeals of discrimination complaints will not be decided; Outreach and education events will be cancelled; No FOIA requests will be processed.”

According to the letter from the EEOC’s human resources department, “Despite efforts to reduce funding requirements by executing across-the-board program reductions and implementing a hiring freeze, we currently anticipate expenditures to cover necessary agency operating costs will be in excess of our authorized budget.”

According to The American Federation of Government Employees Council President 216 Rachel Shonfield, the EEOC’s furlough is happening because of Congressional budget freezes. She told USA Today via a statement, “EEOC employees will be forced to lose up to a day’s pay at the end of August unless the agency can scrimp together enough money to make payroll and keep the lights on.”

Shonfield continued, saying that Americans who are facing discrimination would be negatively impacted by the furlough. “Workers facing discrimination on the job are facing longer wait times for appointments because the agency does not have enough front-line staff, and effectively shutting down operations for a day will only make those wait times longer.”

EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows told USA Today in a statement that she would continue to advocate for funding but did not address what was causing the agency its budget deficiencies. “I will continue to advocate for funding that will enable the EEOC to meet the public’s increased demand for our services and enforce all of the laws entrusted to us by Congress.”

According to HRDive, Burrows and the EEOC are still searching for ways to reduce the furlough to half a day or eliminate it altogether. Although affected employees can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board or file a grievance, the process, according to USA Today, has an extensive backlog of cases. Unless the furlough can be avoided, this would mark the first furlough for the agency since 2013.