END CALLS FOR GOVERNOR TO ESTABLISH "SUPER STATE AGENCY" TO ADMINISTER NYS CIVIL RIGHTS CLAIMS AFTER EEOC SUBVERTS 2010 +$33M FUNDS, DUMPS 68% OF CLAIMS AS “NPC".

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Manhattan, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) April 3, 2011 --

New York, N.Y. April 4th, 2011: End Discrimination Now, the New York based Equality advocacy group, announced today that it’s review of the 2009 EEOC “Discrimination Charge” and disposition statistics demonstrated a disturbing continuation of long term inequality between Protected Classes and advancement in the workplace, and a continuation of the rise in discrimination complaints, +7 % over a very high 2009, with disability complaints surging 18%. END also found the EEOC’s continued practice of finding 96% of complaints filed “No Probable Cause” to be a perpetuation of inherently “inconsistent” and unlawful applications of Equal Rights Laws. This year, however, the EEOC increased "NPC" rulings to 67.5% of all Complaints as not meritorious, a whopping 15 point jump over 2009.

END President Jordan hypothecated that the 85K case backlog from 2008 may have precipitated the “irresponsible” decision to “work down” the large discrepancy of “receipts” versus “resolutions” by dumping Complaints. END, which monitors the EEOC Reports, noted that the 5% “Probable Cause” rate has been a “long term lie propounded on the back of the Taxpayer” and is belied by the fact that Employment data supports the validity of the rise in Charges. While the EEOC’s “Employment” base declined by 3M in 2009, the “inequality in advancement” factor of Male dominance of Executive positions rose almost a full point to 71.7% of Executive positions. To clarify the significance of this statistic, END stated that while the “Composition of Women” in the Workforce of 48.5% rose 0.7 point in 2009, this was not translated into advancement into the executive suite as only 28.3% of Executive managers were identified as women or a loss of 0.7 point. Conversely, Men were less represented as a percent of the Total Workforce at 51.6% than the prior year (down 0.6 pt), but gained in Executive presence to 71.7% or a 0.7 pt increase over 2008. Minorities fared worse where their presence in the Workforce declined to 34.1% (what the EEOC calls “participation”), -0.3 pt from 2008, while composing only 11.4% of Executive jobs, a 0.8 pt decline year to year adjusting for the reduced job market. A further analysis of Mid Level positions revealed that Women gained 0.5 pt to represent 38% of this category, while Men showed a slight reduction to 62%, and Minorities remained “flat” at around 20%. “What appears to be happening is that as Women are becoming a larger part of the Workforce, they are being slotted into Middle Management, while a slightly smaller number of Male workers over last year (but still majority at 72%) are being upgraded from Middle to Upper management.
END President Kathryn Jordan stated that while she does not put a lot of weight on the year to year changes in composition, it is indisputable that Women and Minorities have again failed to pierce Male dominance in Exec Suite..

This “behavioral” data supports the validity of the consistent rise in Discrimination complaints year to year by the EEOC. “What appears to be happening is that the EEOC does not have the funds to investigate 100K new charges each year, so they created “Rules” that completely contradict established law and Public Policy to make it appear that 95% or more of the Complaints are not meritorious. The behavioral data belies this”. END became very concerned last year when Ms. Berrien, the EEOC Director, published a Report to the Obama Administration that falsely represented that Minorities were advancing “over the long term” or around the time of the 1968 Civil Rights Bill. This year it appears that in order to justify another $18,000,000 from the Federal Government, that the EEOC has categorized 68% of the Complaints as essentially false and then “resolved” the rest via “Settlement, litigation, and a focus on Race discrimination”. The "divide & conquer" ruse back-fired when Disability Discrimination jumped 2.5X to rise 17.8% and as parcing resources to aid favored protected classes did not result in either a reduction of Racial Complaints or in higher Racial awards that might act as a future deterrent.

END deems the EEOC a “failed model” which should have been disbanded decades ago. It is widely recognized that the “NPC” ruling carries no weight in the NYS Court system and most judges and lawyers disregard this categorization. While it might be tempting to say “no harm, no foul”, END sees far more insidious implications. “The Obama Administration just invested $33M in two years in an agency that has a 95% failure rate. What responsible person would invest in a business with a highly predictive failure rate of 95%? Obama was duped”, END President Jordan observed. Perhaps more serious are the legal implications of the “NPC” rating, END warned. “To get to a NPC rating, and to the other myriad confusing “no merit” classifications, you have to apply a Standard of Review to the facts that is inconsistent with Discrimination Law. We also believe based upon reliable anecdotal evidence over a period of years that Investigators are exploiting Complainants ignorance of the Laws and are unlawfully rejecting Complaints that have minor technical defects instead of sharpening charges, a practice deployed by the Federal Courts. This means that both the EEOC and the Courts have been systematically undermining the legal rights of Minorities, Women and the Disabled for decades”.

The EEOC clearly invested a large portion of their new funds in 314 cases that they processed “administratively” some of which were tried in Court and about half of which were Class Action, END found. “Spending even half of the $33M on 287 “Merit Resolutions” or cases in Federal Court litigated by the EEOC, when half that amount is probably Class Action, means that the average Complaint yields $296K, or 16% over a dismal 2008 benchmark. The consequence of this additional $33M was primarily to work down the 85K case carry over from prior years, but if one just considers the ROI on awards generated, the math does not add up.” END stated that the well articulated “Strategic Plan” by the EEOC was based on a series of fallacious assumptions that would yield a “zero sum game”. “First, if the EEOC receives approximately 100K new charges every year and has only 2,577 staff (of which even less number are investigators), then you are looking at around 3850 Charges per investigator (probably more) per year, or 38 per month. That is simply not feasible even if the Investigators were highly trained attorneys which they are not. Second, that means the EEOC will not be able to deliver its stated business goal of “increasing the number of individuals benefiting by 20% by 2012”. The EEOC cannot handle the case load it hasnow with an extra $18M so it is an unreasonable target that was probably backed into to justify the Budget increase. Third, there is no real accountability built into the business model or precise standards for “success”. The emphasis is on speed of disposition which led to the 95% NPC fraud to begin with. Fourth, the awards found “successful” by the EEOC simply are not large enough to serve as deterrents when addressing large Corporations.” END opined.

The situation at the New York Judiciary is even worse. Judges who are saddled with what might be as much as 5,000 cases per year are presented with a completely impossible situation: How to manage 416-500 cases per month. In Florida they are assigned 1500-2000 cases and still cannot manage this caseload. While statistics on how cases are being disposed of is not yet available, it is widely believed that many Judges have been dumping “Pro Se” cases almost the instant they are filed via the “sua sponte” standard (under Twombly). This is behind some but certainly not all of the “Case Fixing” going on in NYS Courts. Unfortunately, many judges who are acutely aware of the burdens imposed on their colleagues have been “fixing” cases to advance their own careers. As was publicized in 2009, Chief Judge Lippman and First Department Panel members Judge Gonzalez, Friedman, Catterson and Sullivan “fixed” a Jury Verdict on Appeal in order to “help” a repeat corporate EEO violator, Bates Advertising of WPP Group. This abuse of power has not only damaged Public Confidence in the Judiciary, it has made taxpayers less sympathetic to the plight of the Judiciary.

“END-JRN has a balanced view of the problem. There was a decades long period of managerial neglect and abuse of power. There clearly is a crisis at this juncture. However, throwing money at the problem and giving “Case Fixing” jurists “raises” is not the answer and could make the problem infinitely bigger. Nor are cuts to the already lean Clerical staff that have to process claims. We need a Mandate to completely revisit the Judiciary and to investigate, define, quantify and propose affordable solutions to the problem. Unfortunately, until the Executive and Legislative Branches provide for a platform for this to occur and allow input from those who are most familiar with how “Case Fixing” is occurring and how Corporate America and Employers are financing these schemes, no real reform can begin. Governor Cuomo gave us his word when he ran for office that he would impose a “zero tolerance” policy regarding corruption and this clearly did not exempt those whose standards should be highest- the Judiciary. When leaders finally realize that a full blown crisis exists, we would hope that they would freeze any changes of any kind until a comprehensive study is conducted which relies not only on the feedback of the Judges but on the input of the Taxpayers who have been victimized by the systemic dysfunction. The EEOC should be an example of how throwing money at a flawed business model does not yield intended results especially if the wrong leaders are overseeing the Reforms”. Jordan cautioned.

More information can be found online at http://www.enddiscriminationnow.com

Albany Ethics     Chief Judge Lippman     discrimination news     eeoc     eeoc corruption     Judicial Reform     minorities rights     WPP Group NYC