NDHRC Members and Friends,

The following information is from a meeting with Mark Bachmeier, ND Labor Commissioner, on September 29, 2002, who met with the Bismarck United Church of Christ Social Issues Group; I was in attendance at the invitation of the Social Issues Group (thank you to the Social Issues Group for this invitation & for their follow-up on the work of the Division of Human Rights after the 2001 legislative session).

Statistics:

Significant growth in equal employment complaints in the last 12 months, through September 28 2002; now getting 12 complaints filed per month (average before that had been 8 complaints filed per month):  Commission Bachmeier attributes that to increased awareness of the Div. of HR, not to increased level of discrimination

Housing discrimination complaints:  35 filed in the past 12 months (this is in line with the projections in 1999, based on information from other states with similar population size)

All complaints are distributed geographically and proportional to population (i.e., more of the complaints come from the more populated areas)

Average time for resolution of a complaint after filed:  6 months (this was an estimate, not from research actually done by Commissioner Bachmeier)

At this point, the Division of Human Rights is resolving as many cases in a month that are taken in, so are keeping up with the pace of complaints filed; and, in the last 3 months, they have been resolving more cases than are taken in, so are beginning to catch up on the backlog of cases

Generally, an investigation takes about 3 months

Goal for timeliness of processing cases:  investigation completed on all human rights complaints within 100 days (this is a statutory guideline from HUD for housing discrimination complaints)

Goal for completing resolution of case:  one year for completing the administration process (I don't have notes on what the administrative process would exactly entail)

For the new areas of responsibility in the 2001 legislation (public accommodations & public service), there have been 14 complaints filed; the first complaint was filed in November, 2001.  Two complaints have been resolved in some manner (one was a no cause finding), 12 are still open.  On two of those, the DOL is monitoring accessibility changes that will likely resolve those two complaints.  Of the 14, 11 were on public accommodations (i.e., businesses) & 3 were regarding public entities (i.e., school or local gov'ts).  For one of the resolved complaints, the business remodeled an inaccessible bathroom.

Procedure:

In almost all cases that were closed because they were resolved through conciliation, the Dept. of Labor would have found probable cause of discrimination.  The Dept. of Labor emphasizes conciliation in the resolution of complaints.

The Dept. of Labor is preparing to issue its first charge of discrimination in a housing case (the charge is drafted & has been reviewed by the Attorney General's office).  This would be the first charge of discrimination issued under the legislation from 1999 or 2001, although there have been a small number of probable cause findings prior to 1999 in employment discrimination (at that time, the Dept. of Labor had no ability to enforce the discrimination law, only investigate & issue a finding).

Increasingly, the Dept. of Labor is doing telephone or in-person intake, rather than sending a blank form for the complainant to fill out; this is being accomplished by talking with people & giving them the option of telephone intake (or in-person, where available).  Commission Bachmeier hopes to have the Dept. taking the majority of complaints by telephone by the end of 2002.

Survey on discrimination done in December, 2001:

The Dept. of Labor is not ready to release the survey of discrimination that was done by an outside agency in December, 2001.  The work by the agency was completed and given to the Dept. of Labor in April, 2002.  Commissioner Bachmeier needs to review the 350 page report & confer with the governor's office (& others who need to know, who they are were not listed), before he can release the survey results to the public.  He cannot predict when these results will be released.  He has not reviewed the information because of the need to supervise the investigation work of the Department & making the case management system effective.  He hopes that the addition of the Director of the Division of Human Rights will free him from this responsibility so he can turn his attention to other priorities.

Commissioner Bachmeier intends to use the results of the survey to direct the education & outreach efforts of the Division of Human Rights. 

Miscellaneous

Other priorities for Commissioner Bachmeier:  finalizing drafts of new administrative rules implementing the Human Rights Act.  These would be promulgated with the opportunity for public comment before they would be completed as agency rules.

Possible agency legislation for the 2003 legislative session:  combining the open records exceptions.  At this time, there are separate exceptions in different places for labor or wage complaints, employment or housing complaints.  And, they are not consistent exceptions..

Diversity Day 2003:  the Dept. will not likely have the ability to organize a Diversity Day 2003 like that that occurred in Bismarck in 2002, with current responsibilities & with the legislature in session during that time.  Will consider doing something on that day, though.

Cheryl Bergian
Director

The North Dakota Human Rights Coalition works to affect change so that all people in North Dakota enjoy full human rights.