Judge Chutkan has denied EEOC’s request to officially close the NORC portal for EEO-1 Component 2 data collection even though EEOC contends they have fulfilled the court’s order to collect at least the average number of historical filers. As summarized in a prior blog, EEOC estimated that 72.7% of employers submitting data would be adequate based on past filings as of the deadline.
As of the most recent update to the court, submitted November 1st, EEOC reported that 82.4% of eligible filers have now completed submission of Component 2 data. Judge Chutkan denied EEOC’s motion, taking issue with EEOC calculating the average filers based on those that submit on time (i.e., by the standard deadline), as opposed to those who submit through the extended grace period EEOC typically affords employers. Plaintiffs argue the mean should be 98.3% based on the percentage of total reports submitted for those years—including those submitted after the filing deadline. It is not clear whether this threshold would satisfy the court.
As outlined in EEOC’s motion to move the court to determine whether data collection was complete, Dr. Haffer noted that the existing six-week extension would result in increased contract-related costs to the Commission of approximately $1.5 million. Continuing to collect data beyond November 11th will result in additional costs to the EEOC of approximately $150,000 per week and require EEOC to divert fiscal year 2020 funds away from its “mission-related functions”. Moreover, although not specifically mentioned in the update, it is likely that the open data collection would make it difficult for EEOC and/or NORC to move forward with digesting and analyzing the collected data.
Despite the incurred expense to keep the portal open, EEOC must continue to “take all steps necessary” to complete the EEO-1 Component 2 data collection for 2017 and 2018 by January 31, 2020. Additionally, EEOC must continue to submit routine status reports to the court. Further, Judge Chutkan ordered that parties must provide a joint status report on or before February 7, 2020, regarding the completeness of the Component 2 data collections and a proposed schedule, if necessary, for moving forward.
By Amanda Bowman, Associate Principal Consultant at DCI Consulting Group
