Illinois Department of Human Services to Revamp Retaliatory Policies and Procedures to Resolve EEOC Discrimination Finding

CHICAGO - The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), one of the largest agencies of the State of Illinois with more than 13,000 employees, has agreed to revamp retaliatory policies and procedures to conciliate a retaliation charge investigated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. EEOC's investigation revealed that IDHS required employees to waive their rights under federal anti-discrimination statutes as a condition of employment, and refused to resolve grievances for employees who would not agree to waive their rights. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), and the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). According to the three-year agreement resolving the matter, IDHS will provide annual training to all of its Labor Relations and Human Resources Managers on the topics of discrimination and harassment under Title VII, the EPA, the ADA, the ADEA, and GINA. IDHS has also agreed to remove language from its Grievance Resolution Agreements suggesting that employees are prohibited from filing charges of discrimination with EEOC. IDHS will provide periodic reporting to EEOC on all employees who enter into grievance resolutions that resolve allegations of discrimination covered by Title VII, the EPA, the ADA, the ADEA, and/or GINA. IDHS has further agreed to toll the period for filing timely charges with EEOC for certain employees who resolved grievances, and will post an internal notification to all of its employees of this conciliation. Furthermore, IDHS will notify all of the Unions representing its employees of the terms of the conciliation and the need to revise grievance resolutions.