Under a variety of statutes, federal employees, including postal workers, can file a complaint alleging unlawful employment discrimination. Each discrimination complaint contains two key elements that provide information about the nature of the conflict. The first of these two elements is the “basis” of the allegation under federal antidiscrimination law. An employee can allege discrimination on any of seven bases—race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, and disability. In addition, federal employees can claim an eighth basis—reprisal—if they believe that they have been retaliated against for having filed a complaint, participated in an investigation of a complaint, or opposed a prohibited personnel practice. Depending upon the employee’s situation, he or she can claim more than one basis when filing an EEO complaint. The second of the two elements that help define the nature of the conflict in a discrimination complaint is the “issue”—that is, the specific condition or event that is the subject of the complaint. Issues that employees can file complaints about include nonsexual and sexual harassment, nonselection for promotion, performance evaluations, duties that are assigned to them, and disciplinary actions (e.g., demotion, reprimand, suspension, and termination). (See app. I for a listing of categories of issues). As is true with respect to bases for complaints, an employee can raise multiple issues in a single complaint. Agencies are required by regulations (29 C.F.R. 1614.602) and the EEOC Federal Sector Complaint Processing Manual, Equal Employment Opportunity Management Directive (EEO MD)-110 to report annually to EEOC data about the bases and issues cited in complaints, along with other complaint-related statistics. EEOC compiles the data from the agencies for publication in the annual Federal Sector Report on EEO Complaints Processing and Appeals. According to the Management Directive, “The analyses of the data collected enable the EEOC to assist in refining the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal EEO process.” This objective conforms with one of the goals contained in EEOC’s Annual Performance Plans for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. Likewise, as indicators of the nature and extent of workplace conflict, these data could be important to EEOC as it carries out its broader mission, which, as stated in the agency’s Strategic Plan, “is to promote equal opportunity in employment by enforcing the federal civil rights employment laws through administrative and judicial actions, and education and technical assistance.” In assessing why the data collected and reported by EEOC were not helpful in answering fundamental questions about the nature and extent of conflict in the federal workplace, we examined several sources. We reviewed instructions for EEOC Form 462, Annual Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Statistical Report of Discrimination Complaints, the form that agencies use to report complaint basis and issue data to EEOC, particularly part IV of the form, Summary of Bases and Issues in Complaints Filed (see app. I for a copy of part IV of EEOC Form 462.) We examined statistics on complaint bases and issues published in EEOC’s Federal Sector Report on EEO Complaints Processing and Appeals for fiscal years 1991 to 1997. Because postal workers accounted for about half of the discrimination complaints federal workers filed in fiscal year 1997, we obtained and analyzed forms 462 covering fiscal years 1991 to 1997 that the Postal Service submitted to EEOC in order to compare statistics for the postal workforce with the nonpostal workforce. In addition, the Postal Service provided us additional data on bases and issues generated by its complaint information system. We did not examine forms 462 for nonpostal agencies as we did for the Postal Service. Although Form 462 data that each agency submits show the number of times the different issues were raised in each basis category, EEOC does not aggregate these data from all agencies to prepare a consolidated Form 462 (part IV). At our request, EEOC prepared a consolidated Form 462 (part IV). Because EEOC does not routinely compile data this way, we requested this information only for fiscal year 1997. EEOC provided data for all federal agencies and, by subtracting Postal Service data, also provided data for nonpostal agencies. Further, we spoke with officials at EEOC and the Postal Service and representatives of the Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives. These officials provided observations about trends in the bases for and issues cited in complaints. Their comments, they said, were based on their experiences, rather than on specific studies. In addition, Council members from the Departments of Treasury and the Army provided information on how their respective agencies report complaint basis and issue data. Finally, we reviewed sections of EEOC’s Strategic Plan and its Annual Performance Plans for fiscal years 1999 and 2000 pertaining to the agency’s federal sector operations. We requested comments on a draft of this report from the Chairwoman, EEOC, and the Postmaster General. Their comments are discussed near the end of this report. We did our work from October 1998 through March 1999 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. EEOC does not collect relevant data in a way that would help answer some fundamental questions about the nature and extent of workplace conflict alleged in federal employees’ discrimination complaints. Among the kinds of questions that cannot be answered are: How many individuals filed complaints? In how many complaints was each of the bases for discrimination alleged? What were the most frequently cited issues in employees’ discrimination complaints and in how many complaints was each of the issues cited? Answers to such questions would help decisionmakers and program managers understand the extent to which different categories of employees are filing complaints and the conditions or events that are causing them to allege discrimination. One fundamental question that cannot be answered is the number of individual employees who have filed complaints. EEOC does not collect data on the number of employees who file complaints, nor on how often individual employees file complaints. These numbers would be crucial to an analysis of the extent to which the increase in the number of complaints in the 1990s (see p. 1) was due to individuals filing first-time complaints or included individuals who had filed other complaints in the past. Without data on the number of complainants and the frequency of their complaints, decisionmakers do not have a clear picture of the nature and extent of alleged discrimination in the workplace and the actions that may be necessary to deal with these allegations. For example, a number of factors indicate that the increase in the number of discrimination complaints does not necessarily signify an equivalent increase in the actual number of individuals filing complainants. First, an undetermined number of federal employees have filed multiple complaints. According to EEOC and Postal Service officials and representatives of the Council of EEO and Civil Rights Executives, while they could not readily provide figures, they said it has been their experience that a small number of employees—often referred to as “repeat filers”—account for a disproportionate share of complaints. Additionally, an EEOC workgroup that reviewed the federal employee discrimination complaint process reported that the number of cases in the system was “swollen” by employees filing “spin-off complaints”—new complaints challenging the processing of existing complaints. Further, the work group found that the number of complaints was “unnecessarily multiplied” by agencies fragmenting some claims involving a number of different allegations by the same employee into separate complaints rather than consolidating these claims into one complaint. In addition, there has been an increase in the number of complaints alleging reprisal, which, for the most part, involve claims of retaliation by employees who have previously participated in the complaint process. Questions about the prevalence of bases and issues in the universe of complaints are not answerable because of the manner in which EEOC collects these data. Accurate answers to such questions are necessary to help decisionmakers and program managers discern trends in workplace conflicts, understand the sources of conflict, and plan corrective actions. These data could give managers a clearer picture of the extent to which particular groups of employees may feel aggrieved and the conditions or events that trigger their complaints. For example, managers would be able to better discern trends in the numbers of black employees alleging racial discrimination and the issues they have raised most frequently. EEOC prescribes a format for agencies to report complaint bases and issues data (see app. I). The form is a matrix that, according to EEOC instructions, requires agencies to associate the basis or bases of an individual complaint with the issue or issues raised in that complaint. However, there are problems in counting bases and issues this way. Complaints with two or more bases and/or issues can result in the same basis and/or issue being counted more than once. For example, suppose an employee specifies that race, sex, age, and disability discrimination were the bases for his or her complaint, while nonselection for promotion, a poor performance evaluation, and an assignment to noncareer-enhancing duties were the issues. In preparing the report to EEOC, the agency would record each of the three issues in the columns corresponding with each of the four bases. Table 1 illustrates how this complaint would fit into the preparation of the overall report to EEOC. The table is a matrix with excerpts of similar rows and columns that appear on the form submitted to EEOC (see app. I). To determine the number of times each basis is alleged, EEOC instructs agencies to add the number of times each issue was recorded in each column of the matrix. In this illustration, the agency would count each basis three times—once for each of the three issues recorded in each of the columns. To determine the number of times each issue is alleged, EEOC instructs agencies to add each row of the matrix. In this illustration, the agency would count each issue four times—once for each of the four bases under which they were recorded. Overall, the agency would report that 12 bases and 12 issues were alleged in this single hypothetical complaint rather than the 4 bases and 3 issues actually cited. EEOC uses these data from agencies to compile the number of times each basis and each issue was alleged governmentwide, which it publishes in the annual Federal Sector Report on EEO Complaints Processing and Appeals.