Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's plan to restructure and streamline its operations could include a new local office in Las Vegas.
The plan, devised by EEOC Chairwoman Cari Dominguez, is set to go before a vote of the board on July 8. The plan would then need to be approved by Congress.
The plan includes the opening of two new offices, one each in Las Vegas and Mobile, Ala.
The plan also includes reducing the management layers in the agency so that there are more front line workers -- such as investigators, mediators and attorneys -- and less management and administrative positions. The agency staffs 2,400 workers, none of whom will be laid off, Nick Inzeo, director of the EEOC's Office of Field Programs, said.
The Las Vegas office would report to the Los Angeles District Office, which currently handles cases filed by workers in Nevada, Inzeo said.
He said the EEOC won't hire any new workers to staff the office and that it would be staffed by a director, three investigators and a secretary. He said the opening of the new office would cost approximately $150,000 the first year, and the office would probably cost about $30,000 to $40,000 a year to maintain. He said there is no timeline for opening the new office, since it hasn't been approved by the board.
Inzeo said the EEOC has targeted Las Vegas as a potential place to open an office because of the demographic shifts in the area as well as population and job growth, which creates more complaints of discrimination.
"We conducted a fairly thorough demographic survey and determined the Las Vegas area is the fastest growing area in the country," Inzeo said. "(There was) a relatively high level of effort in an area where we don't have an office. That all but convinced the chair that we should open an office."
According to the EEOC's Los Angeles District Office, the number of charges filed by Nevada workers has grown steadily since 2000. The office had about 226 charges filed by Nevada workers in 2000, and that number is expected to grow to 400 this year, or by 77 percent during that five-year period.
Dominguez's restructuring plan is based on a study performed by the National Academy of Public Administration. Inzeo said the plan is expected to save the agency $4.8 million in salary costs and $3.4 million in leasing costs, as well as make the agency more effective in fighting workplace discrimination.
The U.S. EEOC enforces federal laws that prohibit employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, national origin, religion, age, gender, disability and pregnancy and it prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace.
Local labor lawyers have mixed opinions about the new office.
Patrick Hicks, an employer's lawyer at Littler Mendelson, said the fact that there will be an office in Las Vegas could mean a more efficient relationship with the EEOC.
"My personal opinion is if you can deal with people locally, as opposed to people out of Los Angeles, you're probably going to get a more responsive administrative agency," Hicks said. "As an example (the Nevada Equal Rights Commission) is very responsive, they're here locally."
Hicks said the Los Angeles District Office has been more active in filing lawsuits on behalf of Nevada's workers over recent years. The Los Angeles office has filed 21 lawsuits on behalf of Nevada workers since January 2000, the agency said.
The NERC enforces state laws similar to ones the EEOC enforces and the NERC has a work-sharing agreement with the EEOC. Workers can file charges with NERC as long as the discriminatory acts took place within 180 days of the filing. After that workers have up to 300 days to file charges with the EEOC.
Sharon Nelson, a lawyer at the Nelson Law Foundation Inc., a firm that represents both employees and employers, said the new office probably won't have much of an impact on the charge-filing process.
"Honestly, I'm not sure if it'll make that much of a difference," Nelson said. "The (EEOC) office we currently deal with is in L.A., that office has been fairly responsive. From a logistical standpoint it's probably more convenient for Nevada workers to have a local office, but from a legal perspective it doesn't really impact things one way or the other."
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