Free Essay Example: EOCC Complaint Process

The U.S. Department of State adheres to the provision of fair job opportunities to all excluding prejudice based on sex, race, disability, color, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, age, or country of origin. Also, it focuses on attaining this through the execution of a progressing affirmative outreach program. Thus, an EEO's effectiveness has its foundation in a robust affirmative employment scheme and a functional system of processing discrimination complaints that enable timely resolution of grievances. From the case under study, John experiences harassment from his supervisor while the latter refers to him using derogatory names. It amounts to employment bias due to racial differentiation, which violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII. Thus, John should file a workplace discrimination complaint and follow the relevant civil litigation procedures to ensure he acquires justice and peace in the work environment.

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Elements of a Hostile Work Environment Claim

The harassment directed by the supervisor towards John is offensive and has happened continuously since he was employed. Also, John finds the work environment intolerable, which implies that the supervisor's actions are severe. From these two observations, it is clear that the harassment is substantially unlawful. Thus, it meets the elements, which include the person instigating the harassment is the supervisor to the person affected. Also, derogatory acts affect the victim by disrupting their peace at work, which would result in low productivity (Mathews, 2019). The other aspect is that the harassment does not cause economic injury to the victim because he was not fired from work or even demoted. It is evident that John meets all the aspects, and thus, he should go forth and file a complaint to seek justice.

Employer’s Defense for Supervisor’s Conduct

The employer has a supportive defense to accountability of the supervisor’s behavior because there was no observable acts such as lack of promotion or firing of the employee. However, attaining the affirmative defense requires that the employer has the capability of manifesting that the employee did not follow the preventive mechanisms offered by the employer, or he should prove his efforts in halting the supervisor’s harassing behavior (Greene, 2016).

Prima Facie Case of a Hostile Work Environment

John can make this case because his case meets all the elements necessary for bringing the causes of action for discrimination. The first element is that plaintiff was in a hostile environment as depicted by the defamation and derogatory names that the supervisor used to refer to him. The second aspect is that the supervisor’s behavior affected the protected status of the plaintiff. For instance, the supervisor used derogatory names that have a Hispanic origin to call John. The third element is that the supervisor’s behavior severely affected the plaintiff's working by lowering his self-esteem. Lastly, being a reasonable person, the plaintiff had a subjective perception of the working environment becoming abusive. Thus, John has met the burden of proof, which infers that discrimination took place because the severity of the abuse is determined by the supervisor's continuous harassment (McMahon & McMahon, 2016).

Complaint Process

The initial stage of filing the complaint is undergoing the pre-compliant process where the plaintiff communicates the alleged discriminatory action to the EEO counselor. The counselor acquaints the affected person with details of what the EEO complaint process entails as they conduct counseling and try to resolve the grievances via evaluation of the incident to determine the facts. If the counselor fails to attain a resolution, the aggrieved party undertakes the formal complaint process where they start by filing a written grievance with the director. The next step is dismissal or acceptance of the complaint after an investigator undertakes an impartial and relevant investigation to determine the validity of the discrimination allegation. The investigator may also execute oaths to acquire affirmed testimony without assuring witness confidentiality (McMahon & McMahon, 2016). If the complaint is accepted, investigations follow whereby the investigator prepares a report for the Civil Rights Center Director, documenting relevant evidence and testimonies that would enable the making of inferences of the case.

The Department of Labor issues a final decision after 30 days of receiving the complaint report. The choice is made based on the report of the investigation. Afterward, the aggrieved person may request an EEOC hearing where the judge will issue a verdict. The DOL may appeal to the EEOC's Office of Federal Operations if the judge's ruling does not contend the complainant. Otherwise, the aggrieved party may appeal via the United States District Court as a civil action. If the court's decision does not satisfy the complainant, they may take it up to the Supreme Court.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Section 703 of the act highlights prejudice at work places based on religion, ethnicity, gender, or nationality as one of the unlawful employment practices which are punishable by law. In John's case, the supervisor created a hostile working environment because he kept on referring to John using derogatory names, some of which had roots from his ethnicity (Mathews, 2019). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created under section 705. It has the mandate of intervening in any civil action raised by a complainant against a respondent who is not a government agency or the government itself. In the case of John, the EEOC should undertake the initiative of ensuring that the aggrieved party attains justice and does not suffer the hostility of their working environment due to their racial background.

References

Greene, D. W. (2016). Splitting hairs: The eleventh circuit's take on workplace bans against black women's natural hair in EEOC v. catastrophe management solutions. U. Miami L. Rev., 71, 987.

Mathews, H. A. (2019). Leadership Style and Perception of Workplace Racial Discrimination: Crossing the Bridge Between HR Policy and HR Practice (Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University).

McMahon, M. C., & McMahon, B. T. (2016). The National EEOC ADA research project: History, available data, and basic findings. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 44(3), 333-342.