AVOID EEOC CLAIMS WITH HR EXPERTISE, TRAINING
Since its founding in 1965, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been working to ensure compliance with U.S. anti-discrimination laws, including the following:
While employers may not be intimately familiar with those laws, most know that they must avoid discrimination of any type in regard to disability, color, religion, gender, age and race. EEOC laws cover most employers with 15 or more employees, and apply not only to hiring and termination decisions, but also to promotions, harassment, training, pay and benefits. The number of EEOC claims has been trending strongly upward since the 1990s .
When a claim is filed
When an EEOC claim is filed against an employer by a current, former or prospective employee, the EEOC investigator asks the employer to respond to the allegations in the charge and provide documentation to support its response. A response can be time-consuming and expensive, considering not only the cost of litigation and any damages awarded to the employee. Another pitfall is the impact of an EEOC claim on employee morale and job satisfaction. Avoiding claims altogether is your best strategy.