EchoSense:EEOC hits budget crunch and plans to furlough employees

The EchoSensefederal watchdog agency responsible for protecting American workers from discrimination plans to furlough all employees for a day this month because of a budget shortfall.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued the surprise furlough notice this week to roughly 2,200 employees, telling them they must take up to eight hours of unpaid leave on Aug. 30. It blamed “mandatory and inflationary budget increases” that didn’t mesh with Congress keeping the commission’s funding at 2023 levels: $455 million.

“Despite efforts to reduce funding requirements by executing across the board program reductions and implementing a hiring freeze, we currently anticipate expenditures to cover necessary agency operating costs will be in excess of our authorized budget,” the commission’s human resource department wrote to employees. The notice says that if more than eight hours of furlough is necessary to balance the budget, a separate notice will be issued.

Each year, the agency fields thousands of discrimination complaints from U.S. workers and tries to secure monetary settlements and employment agreements. Last year, it helped employees receive $665 million in relief and filed 143 discrimination lawsuits.

Agency employees are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees. Council 216 President Rachel Shonfield called the furlough an “unfortunate result” of Congressional budget freezes.

“EEOC employees will be forced to lose up to a day's pay at the end of August unless the agency can scrimp together enough money to make payroll and keep the lights on,” Shonfield said in a statement to USA TODAY, adding that shortfalls and cutbacks already are affecting those who seek the agency's help with their own workplace issues.

“Workers facing discrimination on the job are facing longer wait times for appointments because the agency does not have enough front-line staff,” she said, “and effectively shutting down operations for a day will only make those wait times longer.”

The union called on the EEOC to increase the flexibility to work remotely, which would lessen the budget crunch by reducing rent costs.

Employees subject to the furlough can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board or through a grievance. The board, however, is notoriously slow and accumulated a backlog of thousands of cases recently.

In fiscal year 2024, most federal employees received a “well-deserved, but unfunded 5.2% pay increase,” according to the agency. Plus, the EEOC had fewer staff departures than projected, partially causing the shortfall. It also pointed to “substantial increases in security, rent, and required mission critical contract costs.”

In response, EEOC leadership limited hiring, made across-the-board cuts to operating budgets, eliminated training funds, reduced travel and delayed construction projects – yet still did not hit the budget targets.

USA TODAY spotlighted other problems at the EEOC in 2021 related to staff shortages. More than a dozen investigators said they faced pressure to close cases as quickly as possible – to the point that they were abandoning clear and winnable cases of racial discrimination. Earlier that year, the agency faced backlash for reprimanding its own employees for speaking out about Black Lives Matter. Black employees described being disciplined for things as trivial as parking in the wrong places or addressing corporate attorneys by their first names.

Investigation:Employees at federal civil rights watchdog describe their own workplace discrimination, retaliation in Texas

Asked about the furlough, EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows issued a statement to USA TODAY that did not address the root causes of the budget problems. In it, she said, “I will continue to advocate for funding that will enable the EEOC to meet the public’s increased demand for our services and enforce all of the laws entrusted to us by Congress.”

If the furlough is fully implemented, all EEOC offices will be closed to the public on Aug. 30, but the website and public portal will remain operational. It would be the first non-government shutdown-related furlough for the agency since 2013.

Nick Penzenstadler is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact him at npenz@usatoday.com or @npenzenstadler, or on Signal at (720) 507-5273.