During the same EEO update session, William E. Doyle, deputy director of the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, discussed developments in that agency.

Earp said she observes a disconnect between what goes on between employees and their first-level supervisors, on the one hand, and the policies and procedures adopted by higher management. There aren't too many employment discrimination charges filed against CEOs, and a lot of what does end up in charges is not discrimination, it's "a failure of people to communicate," she said.

"Employment lawyers need to demonstrate leadership in helping clients solve problems," Earp said. Specifically, she said they should tell their clients to educate employees below the executive level-not only in employment law basics, but in how to communicate and negotiate effectively, and in how to treat employees with respect.

She cited examples involving a first-line supervisor who simply couldn't understand why a particular employee might need to observe a Saturday Sabbath. Another matter involved a grocery store chain with a good record of hiring persons with developmental disabilities to work as baggers. Unfortunately, a particular supervisor had a habit of calling these individuals "handicappers" and making them the brunt of jokes.

Help clients understand what is going on in their company and in their own industry, Earp told her audience. The fast food industry, for example, is serving up EEO charges almost as quickly as it does burgers, she said. Many of the workers are young and their supervisors may not be much older. Supervisors are trained in how to run the shop, but "they are not getting information on how to act in a respectful way," Earp said.

Earp also asked the lawyers to encourage zero tolerance toward retaliation for exercising protected rights. "It's really sad," she said, when an employee loses the underlying discrimination claim, but wins the retaliation claim. Filing a charge is just one employee response to perceived mistreatment. "This is not exactly war."

Turning the mirror on the EEOC itself, Earp owned up to district-to-district inconsistencies in how commission staff might view cases. After only three months on the job, she said she personally would take on that issue.

Earp noted that the revised EEO-1 form is now live on the agency's web site and characterized the changes as "not burdensome" and "pretty minimal."

Watch for possible guidance from the EEOC that would help employers evaluate agreements that require mandatory arbitration of statutory claims, Earp said. Commission research into that area is ongoing.

With yesterday's swearing in today of the EEOC's General Counsel Eric Dreiband, things will move faster in a number of areas, Earp said. The agency has been without a general counsel since the beginning of the Bush administration.

In response to a question about the difficulty of getting timely responses from the EEOC, Earp said the commission's Sept. 8 meeting will be devoted to precisely that. "Lack of timeliness is pretty much tantamount to disrespect for our clientele," she said. Simply getting through to the agency on the telephone can be challenging, audience members said, and Earp agreed. "We feel your pain."

The commission will be exploring the creation of a national call center and, in response to the National Academy of Public Administration's study of the agency, will consider realigning field office staff.

Applicant, schmapplicant

OFCCP's Doyle teased the group as though he were about to reveal the many-times-postponed definition of "applicant" for EEO reporting purposes, but, ultimately, he had nothing new to offer. As to a timeline, he said, "I don't have an answer. I would hate to speculate. Hopefully, we'll have something out soon."

Doyle said the office's enforcement strategy is focused on finding and resolving "systemic" discrimination, meaning that involving a pattern or practice, or a disparate impact on a significant number of workers or applicants.

He outlined five steps the agency is taking in pursuit of that goal:

* Implementing more active management over case progression and resource allocation.

* Working more closely with the Office of the Solicitor of Labor.

* Hiring experts, such as statisticians, to help with technical aspects of investigations.

* Working toward a better system of targeting contractor establishments where the likelihood of discrimination is highest.

* Upgrading the skill sets of its compliance officers through training.

With respect to the Equal Opportunity Survey that so riled up the contractor community a few years back, the study to determine the survey's utility in identifying establishments likely to have systemic discrimination problems is ongoing. The results of that study will be available sometime in 2004, Doyle said.