The Utah Anti-Discrimination Division has instituted changes to reduce the time it takes to investigate and wrap up complaints, according to State Industrial Commissioner Colleen Colton.
She made the announcement during the second meeting of the Utah Anti-Discrimination Division Task Force, which has been assigned to investigate several aspects of the division, including the prolonged time it takes to complete cases.After passing out flow charts to task force members so they understand the process for anti-discrimination complaints, Colton said the division has added a mediation conference to be held after the complaint has been mailed to the responding company.
She said graduate students of the University of Utah department of communication who specialize in dispute resolution have been contracted to hold the mediation conferences and bring the employee and employer together with a goal of ending the dispute to everyone's satisfaction.
Colton, who supervises the division, said the mediation conference isn't mandatory, but if one is requested it should be held within three weeks after a discrimination complaint is filed.
Under the new system, Colton said, a complaint is filed, the intake process is completed and the complaint mailed to the employer and the complaining party by the intake officer. Then comes the mediation conference, she said.
Colton believes that during a mediation conference a petitioning party might rethink a position or the employer mightassess the costs and negative publicity if he or she continues the fight.
If the mediation conference fails to resolve a case, the case will be sent to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for litigation and settlement enforcement.
If the cause finding is in favor of the employee the employer can appeal to the EEOC, and if the finding favors the employer the case automatically goes to the EEOC, she said.
She said the effect of the pilot program involving graduate students won't be known for several months, possibly after the task force has completed its work.
For the second consecutive meeting, Robyn Kaelin, who represents the Coalition for Civil Rights Enforcement in Utah, made a plea to expand the task force to include a "community liaison." She said that person would offset George Danielson as the UADD liaison.
Kay Cornaby, task force chairman, said only the governor has the power to add people to the task force and noted that Danielson was serving as staff to the task force.
Kaelin will offer some information about the coalition at the next meeting, Feb. 5.