WASHINGTON—Given the terrible track record of the Donald Trump regime in enforcing civil rights laws—except for alleged discrimination against white men—an ongoing lawsuit by two female federal workers, their attorneys and their union is no surprise: They charge the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the leading federal civil rights enforcement agency, is blocking anti-discrimination suits covering sexual harassment on the job.
In this case, Deanna Chelette and Alexzandria Boyd, correctional officers at the federal prison in Pollock, La., are part of a class action sexual discrimination complaint against their bosses at the prison for failing to restrain and discipline inmates who harass the officers.
But that class action complaint has gone nowhere at the EEOC, thanks to Andrea Lucas, the commission’s Trump-named chair.
The EEOC investigates cases of sexual, racial, gender and other discrimination on the job, including class action claims. But this past December 10, Lucas froze all such class action complaints from federal workers.
Which means Chelette, Boyd and other female corrections officers at the prison are still subject to discrimination and harassment by the inmates. And it’s bad, and has only gotten worse since the two workers went to the EEOC.
Chelette and Boyd “could be assigned to work anywhere within the prison complex with the male inmates who expose her and her female colleagues to exceptionally vulgar sexual harassment including demeaning sexual comments and lewd gestures, exhibitionist nudity and masturbation, and rape threats,” the lawsuit says.
“Despite class action certification…and the inmates’ ongoing sexual harassment, Pollock management’s response to the sexual harassment has worsened.”
So Chelette, Boyd, their union, the American Federation of Government Employees, and their lawyers went to the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C on July 28 for an injunction to force the EEOC to resume its real job: enforcing anti-discrimination laws.
Ending civil rights enforcement shows another side of the Trump regime’s racism, as well as its disdain for its own federal workers and their main union, AFGE. He called the union “enemies.” That hasn’t stopped the workers, or their lawyers, or AFGE.
“Whether in a federal prison or elsewhere, women do not need to endure sexual harassment in the workplace,” said Heidi Burakiewicz, one of two lead attorneys representing the two women.
“Rather than take common-sense steps to prevent the inmates’ vulgar and egregious sexual harassment of female staff, however, “ the bosses at the Pollock prison “turned a blind eye to it,” added Burakiewicz.
“By refusing to process class claims” of sexual harassment on the job, “the EEOC has abandoned the women and prevented them from obtaining implementation of steps to stop it.
“The EEOC’s suspension of class discrimination claims brought by federal employees is an abdication of its obligation, required by law, to adjudicate these claims expeditiously,” added the other lead attorney, veteran civil rights counsel Joseph Sellers.
“This unannounced and unexplained suspension of these important class discrimination cases is the latest chapter in the EEOC’s retreat from enforcing the civil rights laws mandated by Congress.”
When the EEOC, which enforces the anti-discrimination Section VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, gets a complaint, it’s supposed to investigate it and, if it finds discrimination or harassment, first try mediation between the two sides to end it and to prevent further problems on the job.
If that doesn’t work, the EEOC then “releases” the complaining workers to invoke the law themselves by going to court.
But they can’t do so unless the EEOC lets them loose to sue—and EEOC Chair Lucas’s “suspension order” covering all the pending complaints about sexual harassment leaves Chelette, Boyd and the other complaining women in legal limbo.
Where the system has broken down, this lawsuit says, is in that second step. In plain English, the EEOC, obeying Trump, is just sitting on all the complaints it’s received. Meanwhile, says AFGE, the agency’s obeying Trump by launching probes of discrimination against white men.
“Although binding regulations require the commission to handle class complaints promptly, defendants”—Trump’s EEOC—”have unlawfully directed administrative judges to indefinitely suspend class cases, barring them from holding hearings, deciding motions, issuing decisions, or taking any other action to move these properly filed complaints forward,” the suit says.
“Justice delayed is justice denied, and the EEOC’s refusal to act on these class-action complaints is causing direct harm and personal injury to our members,” Government Employees President Everett Kelley said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
“The EEOC has a legal responsibility and obligation to keep our federal workplaces free from discrimination and retaliation, and the agency’s refusal to process these cases is a clear abandonment of its mission.”
No date has been set yet for a court hearing on the case.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
