ABLEnews Extra

          Don't Refer Disabled, Orders Grocery Chain

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Glibert F. Casellas, chairman of the federal Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission  and former U.S. Air Force general counsel...
was born in Tampa...[His] family is from Puerto Rico....The EEOC's
mandate is to ensure equality of opportunity by vigorously enforcing
federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.

Among  the  laws  it oversees are the Equal Pay Act, Title 7 of the
U.S. Civil  Rights Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Age
Discrimination Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Casellas' agency has a $223 million annual budget and 2,832
employees. Some 96,000 charges have been filed with the EEOC this
year, up from 91,000 last year. "If you believe that discrimination
has become more subtle over the years, you're not even close,"
Casellas said. He cites a recent EEOC case against a large grocery
chain in which top management, including its president, used racial
epithets. Managers testified that "just enough blacks were hired to
satisfy the law, and a corporate official stated his work force was
'getting too dark.' "A Hispanic manager was fired for trying to hire
on a non-discriminatory basis. And a female employee was told she
couldn't be a manager because she 'might have a baby and leave.'"

Discriminatory codes on job applications still are prevalent,
Casellas reports. "One employer tore off the corners of the
applications of blacks to identify them and keep them out," he said.
"In another case, an employment referral agency instructed its people
to refer whites to long-term, higher paying jobs; to refer blacks and
'dumb, lazy Mexicans' to short-term, lower-paying jobs; and
not to refer anyone with a disability."

        Sexual Harassment Cases

Sexual harassment still is "egregious," he notes. "The cases we see
are not about innocent flirtations or 'overly sensitive' women.
They're more often about disgusting requests for sexual favors,
touching and kissing." Casellas says racial discrimination is the No.
1 charge. The second is gender--in particular, sexual harassment. They
are followed by disability and age.

The EEOC investigates charges, ascertains whether there are grounds
for a complaint and then tries to mediate the case before legal action
is taken. The agency is an important protection for workers, but it's
criticized for its slow response and large backlog. The EEOC has a
pending caseload of 108,106 cases--and 526 fewer employees than it had
last year. When Casellas was appointed, he wanted to "re-energize the
agency because its stature had diminshed as its caseload went up."
                           
        High Caseload Cited

Today, EEOC has the full backing of the administration, but there's
another problem: "I don't have the money, and that's what I need to
reduce the caseload," Casellas said. "We have 770 investigators, each
one handling 100 charges or more. That's frustrating."

In addition to more investigators, Casellas wants money to computerize
the EEOC, which "works on manual typewriters and carbon paper. When it
comes to the information highway, we're road kill," he says.

[San Jose Mercury News, August 6, 1995]

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