EEOC reduces case backlog

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported a 16.2% reduction in its backlog of charges for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the agency said Thursday.

The EEOC said it has resolved 99,109 charges, reducing the charge workload to 61,621, which is the lowest level of inventory in 10 years. The agency also said that during the fiscal year, it handled more than 540,000 calls to its toll-free number and more than 155,000 contacts about possible charges in field offices, which resulted in 84,254 charges being filed.

“The pending inventory of private-sector charges … has been a long-standing issue for the EEOC and the public it serves,” said EEOC Acting Chair Victoria A. Lipnic in a statement.

“Early in the calendar year, we made addressing the backlog a priority. A primary point of this effort was to share strategies among our offices that have been particularly effective in dealing with the pending inventory, while ensuring we are capturing charges with merit,” Ms. Lipnic said.