Question 2. What is the size and processing stage of the Commission's backlog Of complaints, by District Office within each regional office as of June 30, 1973; as of June 30, 1974?

Answer. Table 2 shows the total number of uncompleted charges on hand by processing stage by District Office within each regional office as of June 30, 1973; and as of April 30, 1974. End of year data for FY 1974 is not yet available, but will be provided upon receipt. Definitions of processing stages are the same as those in question one.

Question 3. Indicate any changes in the rate of the growth of backlog of Complaints to the Commission during the past six quarters, according to regional Office and district office.

Answer. Table 3 shows the rate of growth in Uncompleted Charges on Hand during the past five quarters (4th quarter data FY 1974 is not yet available), according to regional office and district office. Rate of growth is shown for each quarter as a percent increase or decrease over the previous quarter's uncompleted charges on hand.

As can be seen on Table 3, the Commission's rate of growth in uncompleted charges on hand has been steadily decreasing, to a 5.8% increase in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter FY 1973 five regions and 17 individual District Offices had percentage increases over 10%, while in the third quarter FY 1974, only one region and 8 individual District Offices had percentage increases over 10%.

TABLE 3. RATE OF GROWTH OF UNCOMPLETED CHARGES ON HAND

District office:

TABLE 3. RATE OF GROWTH OF UNCOMPLETED CHARGES ON HAND-Continued

Question 5. In your communication to Senator Harrison Williams, Jr., of February 1, 1974, you stated that * totally new approaches and systems must be developed to assist both in the elimination of this (backlog) problem over the longer term and in the prevention of its recurrence." Please describe in detail what new approaches and systems, if any, have been implemented or are anticipated to overcome the backlog of complaints to the Commission?

Answer. (1) Expedited charge processing under conciliation agreements, voluntary agreements, and court orders.-A major component of future agreements with large respondents will be a mechanism for resolving future charges without going through the full compliance process. A variety of specific approaches are conceivable, but all would have the following features:

(a) The underlying agreement or court decree would remedy systemic discrimination which was discovered during investigation and would provide relief for all persons (both charging parties and those who never filed charges) who were aggrieved by those discriminatory employment systems.

(b) The underlying agreement would also contain procedures for resolving pending charges not covered by the substantive provisions of the decree or agreement, and for handling charges filed against the respondent subsequent to the agreement or decree. These procedures would include a fact-finding stage, during which it would be determined whether the charge fell within the scope of the underlying agreement, and a remedy definition stage for those charges determined to be meritorious. The fact-finding might be done by the respondent or by EEOC, or by a state or local anti-discrimination agency, or by an impartial third party mutually agreed upon. The relief provided would meet EEOC and Federal Court standards.

(c) The full rights of charging parties would be protected. If the charging party is dissatisfied with either the fact-finding or remedies, EEOC might conduct a full investigation, and the charging party would also be entitled to sue in Federal District Court.

Existing agreements and decrees affecting AT&T, nine steel companies, El Paso Natural Gas, and several other major firms contain expedited charge-processing mechanisms. Others will be developed during FY 1975.

(2) Pre-charge resolution mechanisms.-EEOC is currently exploring ways of utilizing both traditional and innovative grievance mechanisms to resolve potential charges. Procedurally, such mechanisms would provide a means of resolving discrimination complaints through EEOC endorsed labor-management grievance systems. The grievant's right to file with the Commission or to sue in Federal District Court would be maintained. The remedies provided would have to meet Federal Court standards.

(3) Preventative mechanisms.-The Office of Voluntary Programs during FY 1974 began an experiment in which attempts were made. Without reference to pending charges, to obtain voluntary agreements with employers. These agreements are to contain all that might be included in conciliations agreements growing out of charge investigations. The basic difference is that voluntary agreements would not directly resolve charges but would, rather, deal with systems change and affirmative action and, as was the case in the AT&T Agreement, provide a procedure for resolving pending and future charges.

An agreement was reached with one major firm and several other attempts with utility companies are in process. This limited success has encouraged us to expand the experiment in FY 1975. We plan to invest approximately one workyear in each of the seven regions to see if we can replicate the successes of FY 1974. However, we propose to enter into such agreements only if the employer is willing to make them fully enforceable in the courts as contracts. If this investment proves effective, the Commission will reprogram and seek additional resources as appropriate to take full advantage of the "voluntary agreements" approach.

Question 6. Please describe each short range program, which has been planned and/or implemented by each of the Commission's regional offices, which aims to reduce the backlog of complaints to the Commission.

Answer. (1) Charging party contact program.-EEOC will continue in FY 1975 its program of contacting charging parties whose complaints are more than two years old to update our files and ascertain whether the charging party is still interested in having EEOC pursue his or her complaint. Procedurally, this type of contact has always been made by an EEOC investigator at the time he commences the investigation. By setting up a formal contact program and utilizing special forms and procedures, we are able to reduce the staff time required for contacts and also use lower-graded personnal. We also assure that older charges are not assigned to an investigator without confirmation that the party can be located and does wish to proceed.

This program commenced in the last half of FY 1974. Eight thousand one hundred twelve charging parties were contacted, of whom 4,224 wished EEOC to proceed with its investigation. Of the remainder, 2,598 could not be located, 927 wished to withdraw their charge, and 363 wanted a notice-of-right to sue. (2) "Scope of the charge" investigations.-In August, 1973, the Commission authorized District Directors to investigate charges only to the scope of the complaint where there was only a single charge pending against the respondent. About 65% of the Commission's charges are in this category. Previously, Com