Skip to main content

One to Keep an Eye On: Mach Mining, LLC v. EEOC, United States Supreme Court


As with many employment and labor law related cases that are being litigated around the country, there are always a few that stand out.  This is one to keep an eye on.


Facts:  In 2008, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received a charge of discrimination filed by a woman who claimed that Mach Mining had denied her applications for a coal mining job because of her gender.  After investigating the cause, the EEOC determined there was reasonable cause to believe a discrimination claim existed.  In 2010, both parties subsequently discussed a possible resolution but no agreement was reached.  In 2011, the EEOC informed Mach that it had determined the conciliation process had been unsuccessful and further attempts would be futile.  The EEOC filed suit against Mach and Mach raised several defenses, namely that the EEOC failed to conciliate in good faith.   

Note that Section 706(b) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires the EEOC first determine whether reasonable cause exists to support a charge of discrimination.  At that point, "the Commission shall endeavor to eliminate any such alleged unlawful employment practice by informal methods of conference, conciliation, and persuasion.  At that point, the EEOC is then able to bring suit 30 days after filing a Charge against the employer in the event it [the EEOC] "has been unable to secure from the respondent [the employer] a conciliation agreement acceptable to the Commission."  

I added that emphasis for good measure...as the argument follows that allowing extensive judicial review could threaten to undermine meritorious cases by incentivizing protracted collateral litigation rather than deciding the underlying discrimination claim itself.

Looking Back:  The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that while the EEOC has statutory authority to negotiate first and sue later, an employer cannot use the defense that the EEOC made no real effort to reach a resolution in conciliation to fend of an EEOC suit.  Consequently, the Court of Appeals held that since the EEOC has a unilateral obligation to engage in conciliation, the EEOC had unilateral discretion to determine whether the process worked before filing suit.

The Main Issue:  While the EEOC may bring suit against employers on behalf of aggrieved employees, but only after first satisfying certain preconditions such as conciliation, under what circumstances may a court scrutinize the EEOC's claim that conciliation has failed?

Lower Court Opinion:  http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2013/D12-20/C:13-2456:J:Hamilton:aut:T:fnOp:N:1262102:S:0

Current Status:  The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on this case on January 13, 2015.

Looking Ahead:   If I had to guess, I would say the United States Supreme Court will follow the line of reasoning that holds the EEOC has broad authority to determine when the conciliation process is over.  While there is some risk to allowing the EEOC this, relatively speaking, unfettered discretion, I find it hard to believe that the Supreme Court would want to open up these EEOC conciliation efforts to lengthy, expensive, and time consuming judicial review.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more