Message to EPA Employees: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2024 Anti-Harassment Policy Statement (September 11, 2024)
Dear Colleagues,
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeks to address and prevent workplace harassment, promote equal employment opportunity and create and maintain a safe and inclusive work environment. To achieve this, EPA employees must remain vigilant and follow the Office of Civil Rights’ motto, “All in Against Discrimination.”
As Administrator, I want to reaffirm the importance of our anti-harassment policy. Harassment includes any inappropriate, unwelcome conduct – verbal or physical – which reasonably could be considered to adversely affect the work environment or terms and conditions of the affected person’s employment or an employment decision impacting upon an affected person.*
Harassment based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression), national origin, disability, age, genetic information, parental status, marital status, political affiliation or for engaging in prior protected Equal Employment Opportunity activity is prohibited by law. The EPA also does not tolerate threatening, intimidating or bullying behavior.
The Office of Civil Rights manages one of two EPA processes to combat harassment. Any employee or applicant for employment may use the EEO discrimination complaint process to file a complaint of harassment based on membership in a protected EEO class. If you have questions about the EEO complaint process, you can find helpful information on the Employment Complaints Resolution webpage. You can also find contact information for headquarters and regions via the Employment Complaints Resolution Staff webpage.
It is important to understand that to invoke the EEO process, an affected person must, within 45 calendar days of an alleged incident of harassment, contact their EEOO or OCR Employment Complaints Resolution point of contact. To report harassment to OCR, please contact a member of the OCR Employment Complaints Resolution Staff.
The Office of Mission Support, Office of Human Capital Operations, Labor, Suitability and Conduct Division manages the second process pursuant to EPA Order 4711 (pdf), Procedure for Addressing Allegations of Workplace Harassment. The 4711 process is a measure the EPA uses to prevent harassment and other inappropriate behavior in the workplace by promptly addressing such allegations upon learning of them and taking immediate, corrective steps as appropriate.
To invoke the 4711 process, an affected person – including a witness – should report the matter to a first-line supervisor or, if the first-line supervisor is the alleged harasser, then to the next manager in their chain of command; a higher-level supervisor; or an agency human resources official. To engage in the 4711 process, please contact your Labor and Employee Relations contact.
I want to assure you that the EPA keeps the identity and statements of individuals who report harassment, witnesses and harassers confidential to the extent possible by law. Further, it is illegal to retaliate against affected persons for asserting their rights to be free from discrimination, including harassment, by engaging in EEO-protected activity, which includes taking part in the harassment complaint process.
Therefore, all employees must cooperate with EPA investigations into alleged harassment. I continue to expect all supervisors, managers and senior career and political leadership to be knowledgeable about the EPA’s anti-harassment processes and ensure cooperation of staff in EPA investigations.
In addition to the EEO complaint process and the 4711 process, bargaining unit employees may file a grievance alleging harassment. For more information on the grievance process, employees may want to contact their respective union officials.
We must work together to foster a safe and productive workplace to fully meet our mission to protect public health and the environment. Thank you for your commitment to ensuring the EPA’s workplace is free of unlawful and prohibited harassment.
Michael S Regan
Administrator
US EPA 2024 Anti-Harassment Policy Statement (pdf)
∗ An affected person is defined in EPA Order 4711 as a federal employee, an applicant for employment, a grantee employee, a contractor employee, an EPA Federal Advisory Committee Act member, a Senior Environment Employee enrollee, a student volunteer or internor a Public Health Service officer who believes they have been subjected to harassment in the course of employment or performance of agency-related functions.