Federal employees facing sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination are currently blocked from collectively seeking relief before the federal government’s anti-discrimination agency, some workers alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has paused adjudication of class-action discrimination cases brought by federal workers against their employing agencies, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, which accused the agency of flouting its fundamental responsibilities.
Deanee Chelette is a Bureau of Prisons employee who works as a correctional officer at the Federal Correctional Institution in Pollock, Louisiana, and a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She is a member of a certified class-action case currently before EEOC alleging widespread sexual harassment against women that management failed to address. According to that case, male inmates routinely exposed themselves, masturbated and made rape threats in front of female employees. Management is aware of the situation and has not taken meaningful steps to improve it, the complainants have alleged.