Name: Bill Branch
Department: Department of Fair Employment and Housing
Contact: Bill.Branch@dfeh.ca.gov
Area(s): Customer Service
When members of the public file employment discrimination, harassment or retaliation complaints with the Department, they have the option of proceeding directly to court, if they prefer. However, before they can do so, California law requires that they must first exhaust their administrative remedies by obtaining a right-to-sue (RTS) letter from DFEH.
The Department provides RTS letters upon request, approximately 15,000 in a typical year. To serve the public more readily and to conserve limited resources, the DFEH initiated an automated RTS process accessible on the Internet.
The automated RTS system makes customer service lightning fast. No longer are attorneys and complainants required to wait for the manual processing and mailing of the RTS letters. They can print the RTS letter from their own computers and printers after completing the online process.
In addition, the automation is expected to bring saving in staff time, paper, envelopes, postage, photocopying supplies, file storage—a significant contribution to Governor Schwarzenegger’s greening of state government initiative. Since manual processing had been producing a minimum of four pages of paperwork for each request, the DFEH estimates that electronic automation could save at least 12,400 pieces of paper a year.
In January 2007, DFEH asked an outside contractor to find a way to automate the RTS process with the assistance of the Department’s employees. It was part of a $128,400 contract, which also included design, development and implementation of the department’s online appointment system (see above). In January and February 2008, DFEH launched the two new systems online.