The EEOC just released its FY11 charge numbers. If you were hoping to see some relief… well, it’s not there.
The EEOC received a record number of charges in FY11– 99,947.
It’s a small increase over last year (in FY10 they received 99,922 charges) but it’s still trending up. The EEOC also achieved record recovery for claimants; The Commission obtained $455.6 million in relief.
Retaliation Tops The Charts
What shouldn’t be surprising—considering all that is going on in the regulatory and enforcement world—is that retaliation claims continue to top the charts. The EEOC received 37,334 retaliation charges or 37.4 percent of all charges. Retaliation has now held the 1st place position for 3 years running.
What other claim types are most common?
- Race (35,395 or 35.4%)
- Sex (28,534 or 28.5%)
And both of these categories declined slightly over the past 3 years. (Note as well race still trumps sex by volume of claims, which is why “siloed” sexual harassment training that covers no additional protected categories, nor the broader topics of discrimination and retaliation, is so misguided.)
I’ve blogged about retaliation a couple of times in the past two months because the law on retaliation continues to evolve and expand, and employer risk continues to increase.
- Survey Results Are In: Retaliation Against Whistleblowers At An All Time High
- More than 20 federal laws (and even more state laws) protect employees from retaliation. Despite all these protections 22%, or 9 million American workers say they experience retaliation. That’s because:
- 82% of employees report misconduct to managers or senior managers
- Only 24% of employers think their managers understand and know not to engage in retaliation
Chart A New Course For Your Organization
Retaliation claims are skyrocketing. More resources are available to whistleblowers. Courts and legislatures are expanding rights for whistleblowers, and government enforcement agencies are heavily focused on protecting and rewarding whistleblowers.
Organizations need to get proactive.
At ELT, we know how to help you meet these challenges—quickly, cost effectively, and powerfully. ELT’s legally engineered™ eLearning solutions all include dedicated content on retaliation and retaliation prevention. We also have a just-released program dedicated to Whistleblowing, Reporting & Retaliation. We have built engaging courses that use rich, character-based scenarios that:
- Educate employees about your organization’s values
- Teach employees about your policies and their obligation to report suspected misconduct internally
- Teach managers (the people in your organization who receive 82% of all complaints) about handling complaints and preventing retaliation
- Help establish important legal defenses
Change the retaliation trend for your organization this year. We can also help you with your critical discrimination training and harassment training needs. Our award-winning compliance solutions have been used by more than 5,000,000 employees around the world.
