1984

In EEOC v. Shell Oil Co., the Supreme Court affirms the authority of EEOC's Commissioners to initiate charges of discrimination through "Commissioners Charges."

General Motors Corporation (GM) and the United Auto Workers agree to pay $42.4 million to resolve an EEOC Commissioner charge alleging the company engaged in a "pattern and practice" of race and sex discrimination. The settlement also provides that GM will promote a substantial number of minorities and women into managerial jobs as well as recruit minorities and women into high paying apprenticeship and craft programs. The settlement is the largest non-litigated settlement in the history of EEOC to date. EEOC's Systemic Division (formerly National Programs Division) had worked on this matter for over a decade.

In Ignacio v. U.S. Postal Service, the Commission, interpreting the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, decides for the first time that a federal agency's duty to reasonably accommodate an individual with a disability includes considering the reassignment of the individual to a new job. In short, if the employer cannot modify the job which the individual was performing, the employer cannot simply terminate the individual but it must consider placing the individual in a different job.

Next: 1985