Plan to open Las Vegas Valley EEOC office moves forward

Alana Roberts

Monday, July 11, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

Las Vegas is one step closer to getting a new federal office that would help officials handle an increase in employment discrimination complaints.

The four-member board of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission approved a restructuring plan Friday that includes the opening of a new Las Vegas field office.

The plan was approved by a three to one vote. If the plan is also approved by Congress and funds are budgeted to finance the new office it could open sometime in 2006, said Cynthia Pierre, director of field management programs for the EEOC. She said the office would have between three to five staff members depending on the needs of the area. The plan is expected to save the agency $4.8 million in salary costs and $3.4 million in leasing costs nationwide.

The Las Vegas field office would report to the Los Angeles District Office, which currently handles cases in Nevada.

The opening of the Las Vegas office would cost $150,000 the first year, Nick Inzeo, director of the EEOC's Office of Field Programs, said previously. The office would then cost about $30,000 to $40,000 a year to maintain.

The number of charges filed by Nevada workers has grown steadily since 2000, according to the EEOC, and the number is expected to grow by 77 percent from 226 charges to 400 charges this year. Pierre said if the EEOC opens the Las Vegas office, the EEOC would be able to do more outreach to both workers and businesses in the area.

"We would be working with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission," Pierre said. "We'd have more of a presence, more outreach activities, training for employers. While they do outreach they would be able to do more."

The plan also includes opening an office in Mobile, Ala., as well as reducing the management layers in the agency so there are more front line workers -- such as investigators, mediators and attorneys -- and less management and administrative positions. Pierre said none of the EEOC's 2,400 workers would be laid off or demoted, and the EEOC has maintained that no offices would be closed.

"All of the affected people have been told that they will not lose their pay or their grade, although they may be doing some different duties than what they're doing now," Pierre said.

However, members of the National Council of EEOC Locals, the union that represents some of the EEOC's workers, have expressed concern that the plan will make the agency less efficient in its task of eradicating workplace discrimination. The group has complained that the plan won't help to address the agency's growing backlog of cases and will reduce the access the public has to the agency.

"The plan guts offices and centralizes them into mega regional offices covering larger territories with the same amount of monetary resources," Gabrielle Martin, president of the National Council of EEOC Locals, said in a press release. "'The plan adds layers but not people."

Martin could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Pierre disputed the union's claims.

"They had complained we were closing offices and we were never going to close an office," Pierre said. "Now they're saying it's not good for civil rights. It's not only good for civil rights, it's going to be an improvement. We'll put more people into the task of investigating, mediating and litigating cases."