Panel Vows More Court Action in Job Bias Cases

WASHINGTON —  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, responding to criticism that it has settled too many employment discrimination cases out of court, announced Tuesday that it will bring thousands more cases to court within the next two years.

“We will litigate all cases where there has been a finding of discrimination,” Chairman Clarence Thomas told a news conference. “We’re going for everything. . . . We’ll take it to the bitter end.”

Commission members also pledged to bring discrimination cases to the courtroom in shorter time. The current delay of two years or more “is too much,” Thomas said. Commissioner William A. Webb agreed, saying: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Of 66,000 charges of job bias reported to the commission in 1983, 2,162 were found to be actual violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and could not be settled out of court. Of those, only 338 went to court--and the remaining 1,824 languished without action.

Now, however, the commission wants to dispose of those other 1,824 cases as well. To improve its productivity, the commission will require its 300 lawyers to double their caseloads, Thomas said.

But by targeting “nickel-and-dime” individual cases instead of broad class-action suits--where discrimination allegedly pervades a company--the commission is repeating an earlier mistake, according to a civil rights lawyer who has often been critical of the panel.

The practice caused a logjam of cases in the 1970s and resulted in piecemeal, rather than sweeping, improvements in employers’ hiring and promotion policies, charged the attorney, who requested anonymity, adding: “A case should affect more than one person.”

The five commission members also have approved a policy that Thomas said is aimed at eliminating discrimination at its source, rather than simply providing small monetary settlements to the plaintiffs. The policy requires that preventive action be taken by the employer to ensure that further discrimination does not occur.

Webb said the commission has suffered an “identity crisis” in the last 2 1/2 years and had “gotten sidetracked.” But now, he said, “The proof of the pudding will be out there for everyone to see. We are not done, but we are moving in the right direction.”