Norton Releases Letter Halting Permanent Contracting Out of EEOC Functions- June 30, 2006

Norton Releases Letter Halting Permanent Contracting Out of EEOC Functions
June 30, 2006

Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes (D-DC) today released a letter resulting from an amendment sponsored by her and other Members knocking out permanent funding of the National Contact Center (NCC), a call center that replaced direct contact, until further notice between people alleging discrimination and professional staff at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The letter from Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Ranking Member Alan Mollohan (D-WV) of the House Science, State, Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, to EEOC Chair Cari Dominguez asked not only that the agency “delay any actions that would make NCC permanent,” but also that Dominguez and the Inspector General meet with them, Norton, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), and representatives of the pertinent agencies to discuss “future EEOC actions with regards to the NCC.”

Norton, a former Chair of the EEOC, cosponsored the amendment with Tubbs Jones, an EEOC staff attorney when Norton chaired the agency, and Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA). The NCC began in March of 2005 as a cost-saving project changing the way the EEOC fielded calls from people seeking help for discrimination claims. However, an Inspector General’s investigation found that the savings were minimal, the contract staff that replaced permanent employees were ineffective in handling calls from the public, and EEOC’s backlog continued to explode. The Inspector General recommended that the call center be significantly changed or eliminated altogether.

The NCC was a part of the revamping of the EEOC workforce that also involved a downgrading of district offices. Norton said that the changes have adversely affected EEOC employees’ ability to perform their important mission and have damaged the Commission’s response to the public’s need for strong and rapid enforcement of claims.

In her remarks on the House floor, Norton said, “The call system is not an efficiency. It makes work. Callers instead, want to get to somebody who knows something, as when you have the choice of a recording or a customer service person and you say, let me speak to a real person who can tell me some real information. Meanwhile the nation's civil rights enforcement agency is being dismantled. What other agency has lost 20 percent of its staff since this administration took power? What kind of message is the 109th Congress sending about civil rights?”

The letter can be faxed to you upon request.