What should the position statement include about the EEOC complaint

Explain your side of the EEOC complaint and refute the claimants version

After going through the EEOC policies, now you want to talk specifically about the EEOC complaint plaintiff and his or her employment history with the company and the non-discriminatory reasons that the company has for the adverse employment actions that the complainant says happened.

Explain your side of the EEOC complaint
Generally, it’s best to explain what happened in chronological order, so it’s most easy to follow. Tell a story here about your side of the EEOC complaint.

So, you want to start out by saying, the complainant was hired at this time. This is the position the complainant was hired for. You want to talk about any subsequent changes in position. You want to attach copies of relevant job descriptions, if that’s important. Include facts relating to the hiring which are relevant to your defense against the EEOC complaint.

For example, let’s say, it’s an age claim. And the complainant was within the protected age group, namely over 40 at the time he or she was hired. Well, that’s good. That’s something you want to put in because that’s another thing the EEOC can look at and say, this person was over 40 when they were hired. They were over 40 when they were fired. That’s valuable information for us to know. It lessens the notion of age discrimination.

Next, you want to explain the circumstances and fact which formed the basis for the non-discriminatory employment action referred to in the EEOC complaint. Namely, why did you take the action? Who made the decision? And why?

Include evidence of non-discrimination
You want to include any affirmative evidence you’ve got of non-discrimination in your EEOC complaint, because you don’t want to focus just on responding to the complainant’s specific allegations, but provide the general sense that there’s not discrimination going on and specific examples.

For example, in an age case, if you’ve got good workforce demographics, you want to talk about that. For example, if this person worked in the finance department and most of the people in the finance department are over 40, you’d want to tell the EEOC that. If it’s a broader spectrum, the company as a whole has a number of workers who are over 40, again, you want to put your best foot forward and include that information.

If it’s a pregnancy discrimination case, have there been female employees who have gone on maternity leave, delivered their babies, taken time off, and then successfully returned to work? If so, you want to highlight that fact.

You’re going to want to look to see are there others in the complainant’s protected group. Are there others who are not in the complainant’s protected group who are engaged in similar conduct and have they been treated similarly?

For example, let’s say, it’s a race claim and the complainant was discharged for absenteeism. Let’s say, it’s a black employee. Can you identify any non-black employees who were also discharged for absenteeism, right. You want to show that you were treating similarly situated people similarly and that’s a good way to show it, you want to show examples from the work force.