The report finds that the HR department’s Equal Employment Opportunity office has just 15 investigators for about 35,000 city employees, or about 2,000 workers per investigator. While HR is required to finish EEO probes within 180 days, nearly 80% of the 130 alleged racial harassment complaints that were open as of end-December 2020 were still not resolved after six months. Some of those cases were started in 2015.
“Ultimately, the inefficiencies of the EEO complaint process has left many employees feeling that it is an ineffective tool for identifying discriminatory conduct, leaving some employees feeling they should turn elsewhere for relief, abandon claims, or simply remain silent,” the report finds.
The July 9 report also notes that Black and Latino city workers face more discipline and are fired more often than their white and Asian counterparts. This is true even when controlling for income and union membership. Black employees, who make up about one-third of the city’s transit workforce, comprised up more than 50% of all discipline cases charged last year.