At an April 18 House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2019 budget for the Judiciary, James Duff, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, testified about the findings of a working group on workplace misconduct policies and procedures.
Duff told the subcommittee members that the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group, which he chairs, found that a main barrier to reporting sexual harassment and other misconduct in the Judicial Branch is the formal nature of the complaint process. He told the panel:
“What we’ve been hearing [is that] employees need and want a less formalistic process. The formal complaint process works — to the extent it’s utlized. But many employees want guidance and counseling earlier on in the process so that you don’t need to get to the formal complaint process. We are going to create other outlets for employees within the branch both at a national level and through the circuits.”
The working group based its findings on the concerns of employees and relied on an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission study finding that 75 percent of people who experience harassment never report it. Duff stated:
“We are committed to providing a work environment in which all employees feel valued for the quality of their work, empowered to speak up if they have been mistreated, and supported while their concerns are addressed without retaliation. Our standard for behavior in the workplace is that even one incident of workplace harassment is one too many, and our focus has been on removing barriers to report and address any such incidents.”
He added that the group has implemented “immediate improvements” regarding confidentiality provisions for Judiciary Branch employees and law clerks. The working group review is scheduled to be completed in the next two months, at which time it will provide policy recommendations to the relevant committees.
For related background, see the October 2013 issue of Congressional Digest on “Sexual Assault in the Military” and the March 1999 issue of Supreme Court Debates on “Sexual Harassment in the Schools.”
