High Unemployment Helps Make 2010 Record For Workplace Discrimination Complaints, Resolutions: Persistently high unemployment levels and a brutal job market contributed to a record number of workplace discrimination complaints in 2010, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission reported Tuesday.
'I think when people are less likely to find a new job, they're more inclined to file a charge of discrimination,' EEOC spokeswoman Justine Lisser told HuffPost. 'Whereas in the past they might just walk off and go to another job, nowadays they can't really do that, because there are no jobs.'
Lisser said the jump in discrimination complaints -- which totaled 99,922 in 2010, up from 93,277 the previous year -- was likely due to two factors besides the economy: the EEOC's new education and outreach efforts about discrimination, and a new law that took effect in September 2009 that makes it easier for people to prevail on claims of disability discrimination.
