Class Complaint

1. On September 22, 1999, a white management official gave a black employee a written Notice of Reprimand. Two charges were noted/contained in the notice. The first claimed inappropriate behavior when a black employee requested an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Counselor. The second was a reprimand for voicing objections to inappropriate statements made by DOE's Management officials, and for filing a protected EEO complaint against Management officials who retaliate and discriminate.

The black employee’s objection was to the following racist statement by a white management official: "You remind me of slaves as they were being shipped from Africa – they could not read or write so they had to memorize everything." The management official is reprimanding the black employee in the September 22, 1999, Notice of Reprimand document with the claim that the black employee is destroying the manager’s integrity by revealing this racist statement (which is offensive and insulting to the members of this class).

Other facts are also included.

2. DOE management officials use disciplinary actions of personnel to retaliate against Blacks who participate in protected EEO activities.

3. DOE management officials changed the policies, procedures, orders, and rules of the Agency to fit their interpretation, making EEO ineffective and therefore discriminating against black employees, causing disparate treatment, and having an adverse impact on black employees.

4. DOE management officials, through their improper actions and interpretations of laws, rules, and policies, perpetuate discrimination against black Americans, causing disparate treatment, and having an adverse impact on Blacks. Such improper interpretations include the legal concept of “shield.”

5. DOE management officials do not allow EEO representation at meetings of disciplinary adverse actions, in violation of employee rights, as retaliation against black employees for participating in protected EEO activities.

6. DOE management officials do not allow EEO complaints to be resolved in the informal process (pre-complaint) or the formal complaint process, passing through the administrative process with complaints unresolved, causing adverse actions and impact as retaliation against black employees for participation in protected EEO activities.

7. On work assignments requiring travel, white employees’ requests are easily approved while black employees have trouble with approvals, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

8. When on work assignments requiring training, white employees’ requests are easily approved while black employees have trouble with approvals, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

9. Black employees of DOE are reprimanded for filing protected EEO complaints.

10. Black employees of DOE are removed from duty assignments for filing protected EEO complaints.

11. Black employees’ authorized access to security controlled areas is improperly restricted, and clearances are denied or pulled for filing protected EEO complaints.

12. DOE management officials often impose extra unnecessary or arbitrary duties to create impediments to meeting deadlines in order to lower black employee’s performance and ratings.

13. DOE management officials use systematic devices to discriminate against black employees by incorporating unnecessary and arbitrary new procedures, rules, regulations, skill, and training requirements during work assignments.

14. DOE management officials direct black employees to train inexperienced white employees to give promotions over black employees.

15. DOE management officials direct black employees to train white employees to provide an advantage in advance of downsizing, and target Reduction_In_Force (RIF) notices to black employees.

16. DOE management officials give white employees higher performance ratings than black employees, resulting in higher retention by calculation of years-of-service during RIFs, showing treatment that has an adverse impact on black employees.

17. DOE management officials allow white employees to earn compensatory time after and before core business hours while not allowing black employees to earn compensatory time during these non_core hours, showing disparate treatment and have an adverse impact on black employees.

18. DOE management officials, have discriminated against qualified black employees by grooming white employees and showing favoritism for unqualified white employees for promotions, details, and reassignments, while black employees suffer unfair and discriminatory treatment, showing disparate treatment and causing adverse impacts.

19. DOE management officials, have promoted and shown preferential treatment toward white employees without college degrees by grooming them for higher grade levels while black employees with college degrees are actively discouraged, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

20. DOE management officials give white employees higher exposure project assignments and roles then black employees for purpose of promotion, etc., showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

21. DOE management officials have advantageously changed white employees’ classification and job series while keeping black employees in restricted opportunities, showing disparate treatment and have an adverse impact on black employees.

22. DOE management officials have advantageously changed white employees’ position descriptions while keeping black employees’ position descriptions more limited, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

23. DOE management officials give white employees higher education pay, etc., but not black employees, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

24. DOE management officials give white employees special assignments and details but not black employees, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

25. DOE management officials have promoted and shown preferential treatment toward white employees with and without a college degree by grooming them for higher grade levels. The Agency has discriminated against Blacks by offering white employees and not black employees awards, special leadership roles, promotions, higher retention standings, upgrades, special assignments, details, education pay, compensation time, changing of classification and series performed during the times of Reduction_In_Force, and performance ratings, etc.

26. DOE management officials have perpetrated continuing patterns and practices of unlawful discrimination in favor of white employees at the expense of black employees. These continuing patterns and practices of unlawful discrimination have manifested themselves at DOE in myriad ways. White employees, for instance: are regularly given higher level assignments than black employees; are regularly given more opportunities to attend high level in_house meetings; and sent more often to specific training, seminars, and outside meetings; and are permitted to temporarily assume manager positions on a rotational basis when the management officials are absent, while black employees are systematically excluded.

27. Supervisors also draft job descriptions for white employees that embellish the employees' actual duties in order to aid in promotions of the white employees. All of these actions provide white employees a greater edge when applying for promotions.

28. Work assigned to black employees is reassigned by white managers to white employees for completion. Black employees are provided little or no training by on in-house vendor products. Black employees have been excluded from working on high level projects. Black employees are prevented from attending key meetings involving assignments in which black employees are involved. The rotation of the roles among white employees has prevented black employees from receiving meaningful experience of Department activities, mission, vision, and goals – all of which denies black employees career enhancing training, educational promotion opportunities, and equal opportunity for advancement, solely on the basis race and reprisal, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

29. The unlawful practices utilized by DOE are designed to impact adversely black employees in particular. DOE has used its annual evaluation system, among other things, in such a fashion to promote the continuous pattern and practice of discrimination by lowering the relative appraisals of black employees, precluding black employees from fullest development of talent and potential and career advancement at DOE, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

30. Black employees at DOE have little chance of being promoted to higher grade levels, regardless of their qualifications. Most black employees at DOE currently at the GS_13 level have college degrees. There are more than 100-500 white employees at the GS_12, GS_13 or higher level who do not even have a college degree employed by DOE, showing disparate treatment and causing adverse impact on black employees.

31. DOE management officials’ actions show patterns and practices of discrimination which clearly work to the detriment of Blacks in general, and to the detriment of black employees specifically, in violation of federal Civil Rights laws, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

32. Many black employees have formal EEO complaints against DOE management officials that have not been resolved within periods stipulated by law and rule, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

33. Black employees have received substantially fewer outstanding performance appraisals and bonuses then white employees, showing disparate treatment in performance ratings and an adverse impact on black employees.

34. During the same period as adverse personnel actions, EEO cases have been pending, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

35. White managers at GS_15 and above receive outstanding performance ratings regardless of the number EEO complaints or other actions filed against them, entitling them to lump-sum annual bonuses larger than many employees’ annual salaries, causing disparate treatment, favoritism, abuse of Federal rules and policies, and having an adverse impact on black employees.

36. Departmental documentation shows that there are offices within DOE "notorious" for the number of EEO complaints black employees have filed. Many of these offices have GS_13 and above managers who historically have not adhered to EEO policies, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

37. DOE management officials have allowed the Office of Civil Rights not to respond to the legitimate complaints of black employees, while white employee complaints of discrimination are expedited. This has been routinely exhibited by their failure to respond professionally in a timely manner while holding black employees to rigid requirements and schedules. Black employees have met with and relayed to senior management the fact that the office is improperly staffed by unqualified and incompetent individuals who have inadequate knowledge of EEO laws, rules, policies and processes to effectively interface and manage employee issues and complaints, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

38. The Department routinely advertises and announces position vacancies that are preselected, giving preference to those whom white supervisors favor to the detriment of more qualified black applicants, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

39. DOE management officials routinely violate OPM's hiring policies. DOE has routinely and blatantly developed positions that were preselected for less-qualified white employees to the detriment of qualified black employees, in gross violation of Merit System Principles and Prohibited Personnel Practices, constituting disparate treatment for black employees.

40. There are promotions and training opportunities that are not afforded equally to all employees. Black employees are not fairly represented in professional nor management positions. When the Department reports its demographics on minority, specifically black, employees’ enrollment in promotional and training opportunities, it incorrectly reports the number of favorable promotions and training attendees versus the actual number that were eligible and selected. This misrepresentation results in a favorable report that is highly distorted. Promotions and training should be afforded to all, regardless of grade level. Those with clearly defined career goals outlined in their Individual Development Plans (IDPs), should have approximate established dates of Leadership Program training and attendance. Those lacking specific required skills should be given opportunities to develop skills that will afford them career growth and promotions. Existing practices show disparate treatment and cause an adverse impact on black employees.

41. Retaliation has forced many potential complainants not to voice their concerns. Potential complainants have expressed to employee advocacy groups their fear of retaliation resulting from filing EEO complaints. Many black employees feel they are potentially subjected to harassment, poor performance ratings, denigration, removal of duties, etc., that they have witnessed happening to employees who have filed complaints. Many are forced to seek litigation due to the inadequacy of the Department's informal and formal process to resolve problems, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

42. Management accountability is lacking as office directors seem to intentionally violate guidelines with apparent impunity by not being held accountable for discriminatory and other unlawful actions, showing disparate treatment, and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

43. Offices purportedly “friendly” to black employees, or existing to ensure, protect, and enforce their civil rights – such as the Executive Secretariat, the Office of Civil Rights, the Office of Management and Administration, and the Office of the General Counsel – have routinely violated US laws, DOE orders, etc. In addition, senior DOE management officials who ostensibly believe themselves to be omnipotent, and who exercise far-reaching control over employees lives and careers, directly oppose recommended suggestions by DOE lead offices to resolve employees’ issues, concerns, and complaints, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

44. August 11,1999 Ongoing – Black employees are denied the opportunity to attend conferences, participate in discussions on their job duties with their supervisors, participate in conference calls on their duties, and receive correspondence on their duties, representing a pattern and practice of discrimination showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

45. August 16,1999 Ongoing – Black employees are restricted from attending training conferences to enhance their performance in their job duties, while white employees are provided unrestricted training opportunities to frequently attend conferences pertaining to their duties, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

46. Ongoing – Black employees are prohibited and restricted in numbers from attending training conferences, while whites are approved and funded to attend, contrary to the reasons used to deny funds for black employees, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

47. DOE management officials use travel funds on a priority basis for whites, under special job arrangements for their personal lives rather than for job related purposes, showing disparate treatment, favoritism, and unlawful behavior having an adverse impact on black employees.

48. DOE management creates promotions at the higher grades for organizations that have predominately white employees with lesser education and experience, while black employees with more education and experience are denied promotions or have to apply for promotions that have a lower ceiling, thereby creating a continuous pattern and practice of discrimination based solely on race; causing disparate treatment, and have an adverse impact on black employees.

49. Refusing to allow interviews when well qualified black employees apply for the positions, especially, at the higher grade levels, in Field and Operations offices, thereby creating a pattern and practice of continuous racial discrimination; causing disparate treatment, and having an adverse impact on black employees.

50. Ongoing – Lesser qualified whites are selected over better qualified blacks, and more qualified black employees are placed under the direct supervision of these lesser qualified white employees to perform the work that the white employees have not had the training or experience to perform, representing a pattern and practice of unlawful discrimination based on race, and retaliation.

51. September 24, 1999 - Ongoing – DOE conducted in-house desk audits are used to deny accretion-of-duties promotions to blacks, while they are routinely used as a means of avoiding merit competition in promoting whites, representing a pattern and practice of discrimination, based on race and retaliation, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

52. Ongoing – DOE management officials have frequently revised the position descriptions of white employees to qualify them for higher grades; then, in cooperation with personnel directors, announced jobs at a higher grade, and based on what has been written in these revised position descriptions, select the white employees into job announcements tailored to those individuals, showing a continuing pattern and practice of racial discrimination with disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

53. Ongoing – Supervisors reclassify jobs for white employees so they can be promoted to higher grades, placed in a different job series, so that blacks, who have seniority cannot bump and retreat these new positions during a RIF, representing a continuing pattern and practice of racial discrimination with disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

54. Ongoing – Managers create positions for white employees who resigned from DOE and decided they wanted to return, when there are no available “full-time equivalent” (FTE - under appropriated funds) slots. The newly created FTEs negatively impact the jobs of black employees by fragmenting the duties of the black employees to support the FTEs created for the returning white employees, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

55. Ongoing – Managers abolish standard job titles for black employees which support their job series and duties, assign new job titles that are inconsistent with their job duties, and thereby make it more difficult to compete for jobs with standard job titles. In some cases, black employees thus affected were not provided office space and name plates for these new positions, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

56. September 27,1999 - Ongoing – Management used reassignments to remove and reassign black employees from positions that had promotion potential to positions with no promotion potential, representing disparate treatment with a continuing pattern and practice of discrimination and reprisal, having an adverse impact on black employees.

57. Ongoing – DOE management officials assigned white employees’ duties to ensure promotions for white employees by revising their position descriptions, and constantly reducing or limiting the duties of black employees because these duties could lead to job upgrades, and promotions under the competitive process. DOE management officials take the duties of black employees and give them to white employees, since they controlled the assignments, which represents disparate treatment and a continuing pattern and practice of discrimination, having an adverse impact on black employees.

58. Ongoing – DOE management officials manipulate the RIF process in favor of white employees by changing their job series, promotions, and reassignments to prevent them from being RIF’d or bumped by a black employee. This practice is continuing, representing a pattern and practice of discrimination, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

59. Ongoing – DOE management officials issue reprimands on a discriminatory basis to black employees, including suspensions without pay, for alleged but unsubstantiated charges, for incidents that did or do not violate any federal regulations, agency policy, or personnel practice. DOE management officials do not issue these reprimands to white employees in similar circumstances, which represents disparate treatment and a continuing pattern and practice of discrimination/reprisal and retaliation, having an adverse impact on black employees.

60. Ongoing – DOE management officials used their supervisory authority to harass black employees who filed EEO complaints by denying them travel funds, disapproving training requests, and directing security guards to stop black employees on phony surveys, showing disparate treatment and causing an adverse impact on black employees.

61. September 19, 1999 - Ongoing – DOE management officials use the awards system to reward employees based on unlawful racial criteria, deciding the amount and frequency of these awards, which represents disparate treatment against black employees on a continuing basis, showing a pattern and practice of discrimination, and having an adverse impact on black employees.

62. Ongoing – DOE management officials retaliate against black employees who filed EEO complaints by arbitrarily lowering their performance ratings, rather than preparing performance evaluations/appraisals based on their actual job accomplishments. Higher ratings to white employees permit white employees to add years to their calculated federal service time in the event of a RIF, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

63. Ongoing – DOE management officials exhibit discriminatory conduct toward black employees who are near retirement, compared to similarly situated whites. DOE management officials use every opportunity to increase the pay of those white employees, representing disparate treatment in a continuing pattern and practice of racial discrimination having an adverse impact on black employees.

64. Ongoing – DOE management officials use the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity to distort the statistical record of job-related performance in the Department, by misrepresenting the number of black employees at the various grade levels. For example, they combined statistics on GS_13s, -14s, and -15s to inflate the actual numbers for the combined group, which, when displayed separately, show a concentration of black employees at the lower end, and a concentration of white employees at the upper end, of the range, representing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

65. Ongoing – EEO complaints are not reviewed to determine if black employees' civil rights are violated, but are reviewed to dismiss black employees' complaints on Administrative errors/in the process, such as timeliness, representing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

66. Ongoing – Selecting officials for SES positions who have repeated allegations of discrimination, retaliation, and reprisal lodged against them, continue to act in an unlawfully discriminatory manner without correction, restriction, or adverse impact upon their careers, showing disparate treatment and have an adverse impact on black employees.

67. Ongoing – DOE management officials have delayed the processing of EEO complaints by stalling in providing data to EEO Investigators, creating stressful working conditions for black employees, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

68. DOE management officials consistently failed or refused to process EEO complaints within the 180-day time period required under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, causing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

69. DOE management officials have refused to issue Final Agency Decisions Act, after the completion of the EEO Investigation and the complainant does not request a hearing, within the 60-day period specified under Title VII of the Civil Rights, constituting disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

70. DOE management officials have failed to provide EEO Counselors in adequate numbers to properly process complaints, constituting disparate treatment, and having an adverse impact on black employees.

71. DOE management officials have allowed the EEO office at the DOE Headquarters to lose EEO complaints and misinform complainants about the process, constituting disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

72. Ongoing – DOE management officials refused to resolve EEO complaints during the Informal EEO process for black employees and continue with their discriminatory conduct towards Blacks, constituting disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

73. Ongoing – DOE management officials violated the competitive process by issuing job announcements based on the existing qualifications of specific white employees, making competition unfair to black employees and representing a pattern and practice of continuous discrimination, constituting disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

74. Ongoing – Black employees are underrepresented at the higher grades in Field/Operations offices because of DOE management officials’ discriminatory recruiting practices. Employment in many DOE offices is 100 percent white, and many have no black GS-12, -13, -14, or -15 employees, constituting disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

75. Ongoing – Since OPM abolished the regulation restricting DOE management officials from keeping employees on extended detail assignments, DOE management officials, have used detailed assignments to keep black employees away from their permanent job duties so these same duties were performed by white employees to enhance their skills and personnel records, giving white employees temporary promotions in black employees’ jobs. Details are also used to physically remove, separate, or get rid of black employees who have filed EEO complaints, constituting disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

76. October 7, 1999 – A DOE management official violated the Freedom of Information Act to deny black employees data for their EEO complaints, and to deny black employees data that they requested for their job duties, adding insult to injury by then charging them fees for this effort, constituting disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

77. DOE management officials give white employees higher performance ratings than black employees, embellishing the written ratings of the white employees, showing disparate treatment and having an adverse impact on black employees.

78. DOE management officials assign inexperienced EEO counselors to process both class and individual EEO complaints. These counselors, often black or other minority group employees themselves, show immediate bias toward black employees filing EEO complaints, sometimes making disparaging remarks about other complainants (which is a breach of confidentiality rules) and intentionally providing incorrect and inappropriate information in order to hamper the processing, or successful resolution, of complaints. EEO counselors have diluted specific charges and language of original complaints, causing items to be omitted or misstated in a manner that renders the complaint legally insufficient, and otherwise compromised the neutrality of their official roles and duties by acting essentially as agents of management, insinuating management’s bias into the formulation and presentation of the complaints themselves.