Report 2015-132 Recommendation 10 Responses

Report 2015-132: County Pay Practices: Although the Counties We Visited Have Rules in Place to Ensure Fairness, Data Show That a Gender Wage Gap Still Exists (Release Date: May 2016)

Recommendation #10 To: Fresno, County of

To ensure that they can readily monitor gender-based pay equity complaints and reliably evaluate how often such complaints are filed by its employees, each county should develop tracking mechanisms that allow management to reliably determine how often these complaints occur and whether there are patterns of complaints that pertain to specific county departments or classifications.

1-Year Agency Response

The County acknowledged and agreed with the recommendation regarding the development of better tracking mechanisms for monitoring gender-based pay equity complaints and have initiated exploration of the most efficient method to accomplish the desired outcome. The framework of a centralized database of complaints was built as part of the response to this audit. The process of responding also reinforced the County's agreement with having these complaints centralized in one place.

The County created a central log that is sortable and can be filtered to show only specific types of complaints (e.g. gender-based wage equity) thereby allowing the user to identify the nature/type of complaints, patterns in a department, etc. The Discrimination Complaint Form has been revised to include the categories suggested in the Audit. A memo was sent to all County departments April 13, 2017 announcing the new central tracking mechanism along with a revised standard internal discrimination complaint form.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

In April 2017, Fresno County issued an inter office memo to all department heads announcing its new central tracking mechanism and a copy of the revised standard internal discrimination complaint form. The discrimination complaint form provides instructions regarding how to file a discrimination complaint and the nature of the complaint—including basis of the complaint (for example, 'Sex/Gender', among others) and the type of adverse action (for example, 'Denial of Promotion' and 'Wages', among others). The County also provided an example of its discrimination complaint tracking log.

6-Month Agency Response

We propose the following:

Require all Departments to submit a copy of all Discrimination Complaints received to Department of Human Resources, Labor Relations division, so that centralized tracking may occur

o Departments will be encouraged to model their internal discrimination complaint forms after the newly revised, County Counsel-approved standard form (sent under separate cover) to ensure uniformity in reporting

o Labor Relations will utilize newly revised, County Counsel-approved, confidential tracking log (attached) to record relevant complaint information obtained from the discrimination complaint form. This will help to identify quantity of complaints, nature/type of complaint, patterns, etc.

o Departments will be responsible for submitting a copy of complaint results to Human Resources, Labor Relations division

o Labor Relations division will follow up on outstanding results of complaints

o In order to implement the above proposal, the following would need to occur:

o Establish communication with departments that process is being revised to include the following department requirements.

o Labor Relations Division will need to do the following:

- Update Discrimination Complaint Tracking log when copies of complaints are received from Departments or County Counsel

- Review log on a regular basis and follow up with departments to ensure that results of complaints (award letters, resolutions, etc.) are submitted to Human Resources

- Update Discrimination Complaint Tracking log with complaint results (award letters, resolutions, etc.)

- Monitor log for patterns, trends, etc. in complaints

We feel that the above process addresses and complies with the recommendations set forth by the State Auditor. Data gathered by other Counties further supports the proposed approach of utilizing a universal claim form for reporting, and a confidential tracking log maintained in Human Resources.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The County acknowledged and agreed with the recommendation regarding the development of better tracking mechanisms for monitoring gender-based pay equity complaints and have initiated exploration of the most efficient method to accomplish the desired outcome. The framework of a centralized database of complaints was built as part of the response to this audit. The process of responding also reinforced the County's agreement with having these complaints centralized in one place. The County has discussed conceptual models as to the best way to accomplish this recommendation. This process has included consideration as to who should have access to the database and exactly how it should be used. It is expected that this will result in recommendations to change some policies and increase coordination between County Counsel and Human Resources. Anticipated Completion Date: December 31st

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2015-132

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.