Thursday, May 5, 2011

EEOC: subpoenas or witch hunts?


The Witch: I’m not a witch! I’m not a witch!
Sir Bedevere: But you are dressed as one
The Witch: *They* dressed me up like this!
Crowd: We didn’t! We didn’t…
The Witch: And this isn’t my nose. It’s a false one.
Sir Bedevere: [lifts up her false nose] Well?
Peasant 1: Well, we did do the nose.
Sir Bedevere: The nose?
Peasant 1: And the hat, but she is a witch!
Crowd: Yeah! Burn her! Burn her!

   – Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

In EEOC v. Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA., Inc. (7th Cir. 4/29/11) [pdf], the 7th Circuit blessed the EEOC’s use of its subpoena powers in single-employee cases to try to develop systemic discrimination claims against the charged employer. By defining the EEOC’s subpoena powers broadly, this court permits the agency to conduct nothing short of witch hunts with very little, if any, evidentiary support.

The facts of the case are simple. Elliot Thompson worked in one of Konica’s four Chicago facilities. Thompson filed a charge with EEOC alleging that Konica discriminated against him because of his race and fired him after he complained about it. The EEOC, in turn, issued a subpoena to Konica seeking information about its hiring practices at all four of its Chicago facilities. Konica refused to comply, arguing that the requested materials were irrelevant to Thompson’s specific charge.

The 7th Circuit agreed with the district court that the EEOC’s subpoena was not overly broad in relation to the underlying charge:

The Commission is entitled generally to investigate employers within its jurisdiction to see if there is a prohibited pattern or practice of discrimination. Here, Thompson alleged both a specific instance and such a pattern of race discrimination…. The question … is whether information regarding Konica’s hiring practices will “cast light” on Thompson’s race discrimination complaint.

We have no trouble concluding that the information the EEOC is seeking meets that standard. The answer to the question whether Konica discriminates in hiring or in assigning employees to its various facilities will advance the agency’s investigation into possible discrimination against Thompson based on his race, as well as any more general case it might choose to bring….

Nothing in this record suggests that the EEOC has strayed so far from either Thompson’s charge or its broader mission that it has embarked on the proverbial fishing expedition. The Commission has a “realistic expectation rather than an idle hope” that the hiring materials it seeks will illuminate the facts and circumstances surrounding Thompson’s allegations of race discrimination…. [T]he EEOC limited its inquiry to the four Konica branches in the Chicago area and to sales personnel. We conclude that the information sought by the EEOC in this case is properly tailored to matters within its authority.

It should come as no surprise that the EEOC conducts investigations with blinders off. It is always on the lookout for patterns and practices of systemic discrimination. Every discrete charge of discrimination lodged by a single employee is an opportunity for the EEOC to look for its witch, even where she doesn’t exist. And, at least some courts are willing to indulge the EEOC’s efforts. Employers should not let their guards down and assume that the investigation of an employee’s charge is limited to that employee and that charge. If there are broader problems, the EEOC will find them, or paper you with subpoenas trying.

I Am Not A Witch - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[Hat tip: Employer Law Report and Outten & Golden Employment Law Blog]


Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.