Both the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (“EEOC”) and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (“PHRC”) offer mediation to employees who bring claims of discrimination. The idea is to try to achieve an early resolution of the claims. The reality is that in mediation at this stage, the deck is stacked heavily against the employee.
Both EEOC and PHRC try to schedule mediation BEFORE the employer is required to respond to the allegations. The idea is that employers will be more willing to settle the case before they have to spend money on their attorneys. The reality is that before the employer has responded to the allegations, the employer has probably not conducted a thorough investigation. The employer’s lawyer has not conducted a thorough investigation. And the EEOC/PHRC has not conducted ANY investigation.
The mediation process makes sense if you are currently employed, but want your employer to comply with the law. EEOC/PHRC mediation can be very useful in such cases.
In termination cases, employers go to these early mediations with the intention of getting rid of your case for “nuisance value” – meaning that the employer thinks it will be cheaper to pay a very small settlement to you rather than pay its own lawyers.
The EEOC/PHRC want to settle cases as quickly as possible. I don’t think that they do anything wrong intentionally, but I know from personal experience that EEOC/PHRC mediators do not know the laws as well as they should. I have, more than once, heard EEOC/PHRC mediators make statements about the law that are simply wrong.
When you combine the employer’s interest in getting out of the case “quick and cheap” with the EEOC/PHRC’s interest in getting your case closed as soon as possible, the employee’s rights can get lost in the mix. If you have a case before the EEOC/PHRC, or if you think that your employer has broken the law, do not rely of the EEOC/PHRC to look out for your interests. Contact an employment attorney.