EEOC Statute of Limitations
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, enforces federal anti-discrimination employment laws. Its enforcement duties include investigating complaints (charges) of discrimination, resolving and mediating charges, and, if necessary, filing a lawsuit against employers.
An employer falls under the jurisdiction of the EEOC if it has 15 or more employees. An employee who wishes to file a charge of discrimination against an employer has to do so within a certain amount of time for EEOC to be able to investigate the alleged discriminatory act(s). The time limit depends on various factors such as the law associated with the charge, state and local laws, and whether the incident was one time or ongoing.
Other People Are Reading
-
General Time Limits
-
Generally, a person has 180 calendar days from the date of discrimination to file a charge with the EEOC. Holidays and weekends are included in the 180 days unless the 180th day falls on a weekend or holiday, then a person has until the next business day. Additional forums of resolution such as arbitration and grievances may be pursued along with the filing of an EEOC charge.
Although EEOC has jurisdiction over federal agencies, there is a different complaint process. Federal employees who wish to file a charge of discrimination must contact an EEO counselor [within their agency] within 45 days of the date of discrimination.
State and Local Law
-
If a person wants to file an EEOC charge alleging discrimination on a protected basis that is also covered by state or local law, the time limit is extended to 300 days. However, employees are not required to file complaints with the state or local agency before filing a charge with EEOC.
A person who is alleging age discrimination has 300 days to file only if there is a state law prohibiting age discrimination in the workplace. Otherwise, the filing time limit is 180 days.
-
Multiple Acts
-
Sometimes an employee or applicant may have been subjected to more than one discriminatory act such as: being demoted and then fired, or being sexually harassed and then demoted after rejecting the sexual advances. In each instance, for EEOC to investigate both discriminatory acts, they both would have to be reported within 180 or 300 days of their occurrence.
Ongoing Harassment
-
The one exception to the 180 or 300 day time limit for filing a complaint is if there is an allegation of ongoing harassment. Ongoing harassment could be defined as repeated physical or verbal conduct. The conduct must be offensive and create a hostile working environment for the employee. Although the employee must file a charge with EEOC within 180 or 300 days of the last incident of harassment, all earlier incidents of harassment will be investigated.
Equal Pay Act
-
The Equal Pay Act makes sex discrimination in wages unlawful. Basically, a man and a woman who perform similar jobs under similar conditions that require similar knowledge, skills and ability must be paid similar wages. The Equal Pay Act extends the time limit to two years from the date of the last discriminatory paycheck.
-
References
- Photo Credit CLOCK image by SKYDIVECOP from Fotolia.com
