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Volume 4 Number 3
PRESIDENT NOMINATES CLARENCE THOMAS TO COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
On October 30, President Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for the seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that was vacated by Judge Robert Bork's resignation.
In a July 17 letter to the President, fourteen members of the House including twelve chairs of committees or subcommittees with oversight responsibilities for the EEOC, had expressed concern about the possible nomination.
"[We] believe Mr. Thomas has developed policy directives and enforcement strategies which have undermined the effectiveness of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and Tide VIL
Both Democratic and Republican administrations have vigorously enforced the ADEA since enactment in 1967. However, during Mr. Thomas' administration, the Commission has adopted policies involving pension accrual, supervised waivers, apprenticeship exclusions and early retirement incentive plans inimical to ADEA's purpose - to encourage the employment of qualified, older workers. In addition, EEOC failed to process thousands of older workers' complaints in a timely manner which prevented them from pursuing their claims in court. This led to congressional legislation extending the statute of limitations for these workers."
In June, the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, in a letter to President Bush expressed concerns about the possible nomination of Thomas.
"Since 1985, Mr. Thomas has shifted EEOC enforcement policy away from cases challenging a pattern and practice of discrimination on the basis of age, race, or sex and instead has limited enforcement to individual claims. This approach wastes valuable federal enforcement resources on narrow claims while ignoring systemic discrimination among large corporations and whole industries."
Mishandling of Thousands of Age Discrimination Cases
In testimony before the Senate Special Committee on Aging in 1988, Thomas admitted that EEOC had failed to resolve as many as 7,546 age discrimination complaints filed with the agency or to file court cases before the two-year statute of limitations expired. In response to the agency's mishandling of the cases, the Congress restored the Tight to sue until September 29, 1989 for cases extending as far back as January 1, 1984 (the Age Discrimination Claims Assistance Act). EEOC notified the 7,546 complainants of their right to sue in federal court. Thomas blamed the mishandling of the complaints on bad management in some of EEOC's district offices and on a limited budget.
On May 1, 1989 Thomas increased his estimate of the number of cases involved to 13,000.
Other Problems at EEOC
There have been other charges of lax enforcement of laws by EEDC during Thomas' tenure. A General Ac counting Office report issued in October of 1988 found that EEOC and state agencies did not fully investigate discrimination charges. According to the GAO report::
"GAO reviewed investigations of charges closed with no-cause determinations (no evidence of discrimination found) by six EEOC district offices and five state agencies under contract with EEOC to investigate charges from January through March 1987 and found that:
41 to 82 percent of the charges closed by the district offices were not fully investigated and 40 to 87 percent of charges closed by the state agencies were not fully investigated.
Of the charges closed with no-cause determinations by the 11 EEOC dis trict offices and state agencies from January to March 1987:
critical evidence was not verified in 40 to 87 percent of charge investigations,
relevant witnesses were not interviewed in at least 20 per cent of charge investigations in 7 of the 11 offices, and
charging parties were not compared with similarly situated employees in at least 20 percent of charge investigations in 5 of the 11 offices.
  
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