EEOC ORDERS AGENCY TO, “KEEP HIM AWAY FROM HER.”

This new decision caught our eye when EEOC reported that the agency told a supervisor he “was not allowed on the floor when Complainant [Jene] was present for about two months.”  When the supervisor continued to harass her, she filed discrimination charges. Once the Commission looked over the record, it imposed the very unusual order that, “The Agency shall take all necessary steps to ensure that Complainant has no contact with Supervisor 1, and provide her with a designated management official to inform if subsequent acts of alleged harassment occur by Supervisor 1 or by other individuals on his behalf.” Sounds like if Supervisor 1 sees Jene coming down the hall, he had better turn and run.  Or if the elevator doors open and Jene is on it, he had best wait for the next one. 

This all arose from the fact that Jene and her co-workers noticed that the supervisor has always treated Jene  with less respect than her co-workers and  ordered her to perform tasks her similarly situated co-workers were not required to perform.

EEOC ordered the agency to pay Jene compensatory damages for what the supervisor put her through.  Normally, only the offending supervisor would have been liable, but because the agency knew about the problem and did nothing more than issue a two month order EEOC said it also shared the blame.  If an agency knows about a harassment problem like this and does not discipline the supervisor it is asking the EEOC to hold it liable as well.

For more details, check out Jene M.,, v. Denis R. McDonough, Sec’y, Dep’t. of Veterans Affairs, EEOC No. 2022004049 (2025)

About AdminUN

FEDSMILL staff has over 40 years of federal sector labor relations experience on the union as well as management side of the table and even some time as a neutral.
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