08-07-2024
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a written report reviewing the US Courts. As requested by the Senate, the GAO appraised the judiciary's workplace policies and practices for its 30,000 employees. The GAO broadcast its conclusion with the title: "Additional Actions Would Strengthen Efforts to Prevent and Address Workplace Misconduct." Proving the point, the Administrative Office of the US Courts limited the GAO's access to court employees for its investigation. The agency interviewed just one current and one former employee. It did interview judges, circuit directors, and Administrative Office staff.
The Administrative Office documented over 500 allegations of workplace misconduct between 2020 and 2022, with 200 of those related to race, sex, or gender discrimination. The GAO said the federal courts must get more data on these allegations, improve their ability to identify and address potential misconduct, and treat these reports like federal agencies treat their complaints. For example, the EEOC recommends federal employers explain the consequences of engaging in prohibited workplace conduct to their employees. This recommendation is included in written training materials. However, the judiciary does not provide that training to its staff. Judicial staff are not protected under federal civil rights statutes and must rely on the judiciary's policies for any recourse.
The GAO made eight recommendations to the judiciary based on its review, including updating their model dispute resolution plan to align more closely with the EEOC's model, updating workplace conduct training materials and activities in the circuits to correspond with some EEOC practices, developing a plan to improve data collection and analysis, and setting performance measures to determine whether the dispute resolution policies are achieving the workplace conduct goals.