EEOC TO HOLD FEDERAL SECTOR LAW CONFERENCE

Commission Chair Dominguez to Address 500 Federal Officials on EEO Complaint Process

WASHINGTON - The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will hold its annual Federal Employment Law Conference for government employees, managers, union officials, and other federal sector stakeholders on August 27 through August 30, 2002, at the Bally's Park Place Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  The EEOC's national conference, named EXCEL, provides an interactive educational forum for examining contemporary equal employment opportunity (EEO) and merit systems issues in the federal sector workplace.

EEOC Chair Cari M. Dominguez and Office of Federal Operations Director Carlton Hadden will speak at the conference, which will include participation of top-ranking officials from more than 10 other federal agencies, EEOC staff, private attorneys, union officials, and other subject matter experts.  The conference theme is Federal EEO Laws: Ensuring the Freedom to Compete.

"This multi-day conference presents an ideal opportunity for federal managers, human resource staff, EEO officers, union officials, and others to hone their professional skills," said EEOC Chair Dominguez.  "The conference will provide critical information and updates on the latest federal sector EEO issues and policy developments.  I encourage attendance by all those with a stake in understanding and improving the federal sector EEO complaint process."

In addition to Chair Dominguez and EEOC officials, other participants at the conference are scheduled to include:

• Susanne T. Marshall, Chair, Merit Systems Protection Board
• Conrad Bowling, Commissioner, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
• Ventris Gibson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resource Management,       Department of Veterans Affairs
• Paul T. Conway, Chief of Staff, Office of Personnel Management
• Marcia Coates, Director of Equal Opportunity Programs, Department of the Treasury
• Hattie P. Baldwin, Director of Civil Rights, Transportation Security Agency
• Jacqueline Simon, Director of Public Policy, American Federation of Government       Employees (AFGE)

Conference issues will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The impact of the aging federal workforce and succession planning and outsourcing;
• Equal employment opportunity case law and procedural updates;
• Alternative Dispute Resolution and mediation;
• Workplace violence and crisis intervention planning;
• Challenges to the "freedom to compete" in the workplace; and
• Other subjects of interest to federal employees and managers who work with EEOC       and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
 

The national conference is presented by EEOC's Baltimore, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia District Offices.  For more information or to register, contact Louise Garcia at (215) 440-2625 or by e-mail at lgarcia@eeoc.gov.  Further information about the EEOC and the EXCEL conference, including registration forms and a full program agenda, is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov (click on Technical Assistance Programs).

EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; the Equal Pay Act; Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments;  the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits disability discrimination in the federal government;  and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.