By Stephen Barr
Thursday, November 8, 2007

A deeply divided Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will move ahead with plans to close a contractor-operated call center next month, running the risk that the agency may not be able to quickly return calls from the public during a transition of phone service to an in-house team.

Calls from workers about job discrimination may not be returned for up to a week during the three months of transition, officials told the commission yesterday.

EEOC program officials said they needed more time to hire and train employees and install technology for the switch in telephone service, and proposed extending the center's contract into March. But the proposal faltered when two of the four commissioners voted against the extension. Under commission rules, a tie vote means the matter is not approved.

The vote "will likely result in disrupted service to the public," Naomi C. Earp, who chairs the commission, warned after yesterday's meeting.

The EEOC decided in July to replace the contractor, which takes about 65,000 calls each month about job discrimination. That decision also grew out of a tie vote.

The call center has been controversial since its start as a pilot project about three years ago. Unions and some members of Congress opposed the outsourcing, contending that contract workers do not have the expertise to evaluate complaints and questions from callers. By August, it became clear that congressional appropriations committees would probably eliminate funding for the center in fiscal 2008.

A consultant hired by the commission recommended the call center stay in operation an extra three months to give the EEOC adequate time to hire and train 61 employees and put technology in place to handle calls from the public. The center's workload will be spread among 15 district offices.

EEOC field directors told headquarters last week that they will have to reassign employees who investigate allegations of job bias to put them on phone duty. "Several mentioned that it may take up to a week to return calls that will have to go into voicemail because there are not sufficient numbers of staff to answer calls," Cynthia G. Pierre, director of field management programs, told the commissioners.

But the proposal died on the tie vote. Earp and Leslie Silverman, the vice chairman, voted for the contract extension. Stuart Ishimaru and Christine Griffin voted against it.

(The EEOC usually operates with five members, but President Bush's nomination of David Palmer languished in the Senate for nearly a year. Palmer withdrew his name in August, complaining that partisanship was undermining the confirmation process.)

The commission pays a contractor, Vangent, about $2.7 million annually to provide staffing and technology for the call center, which is in Kansas. Earp said bringing the work in-house will cost about $1 million more per year than what the agency pays Vangent.

"The commission could better use its money for staff to investigate, mediate and litigate on behalf of the public's interest," she said.

Ishimaru, however, said he was not certain that Congress would provide the money for a contract extension and faulted the agency for not moving faster to draw up a "plan B" when it became clear the call center was scheduled to close Dec. 19.

"The pace was far too slow," he said. Griffin agreed, saying she was "frustrated by the squandering of the time we have had available."

Although union officials and congressional opponents had expressed doubts about the call center's performance during its first two years, Brett A. Brenner, an EEOC official in the office of field programs, said yesterday that the contract staff answers calls in less than a minute and the majority in less than 30 seconds, on average.

In addition to English, he said the call center handles requests in foreign languages, such as Spanish, Mandarin, Creole, Cantonese, Polish, Russian, Arabic and Vietnamese.

When the call center closes next month, callers will be routed to EEOC field offices. Job applicants and employees with questions about employment discrimination may continue to call the agency's toll-free number, 800-669-4000.

"But the quality response service the public has come to expect may lapse, at least for a while," the EEOC said in a statement.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.