Administrative Payment of Attorneys Fees

GAO was asked whether the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may include in its regulations provisions for the payment of attorneys' fees at the administrative level to prevailing parties in handicap and age discrimination cases. EEOC has issued interim revised regulations implementing the Civil Rights Act which include provisions for payment of attorneys' fees at the administrative level. EEOC wishes to include provisions for the payment of attorneys' fees in connection with complaints brought under the Rehabilitation Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The payment of attorneys' fees in connection with complaints brought under the Rehabilitation Act is granted by reference to the Civil Rights Act. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, as originally enacted, did not apply to Federal employees. It did not create a separate enforcement mechanism, but adopted by reference the powers, remedies, and procedures of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The right to recover attorneys' fees is specifically set out in that act. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was later made applicable to the Federal Government. Both of the amendments to this act generally broadened the rights of Federal employees. GAO does not believe the amendment section was intended to deprive Federal employees of an important part of the remedy available to non-Federal employees, the right to receive attorneys' fees. Since GAO believes that Federal employees may be awarded attorneys' fees by courts in age discrimination cases, as in civil rights cases, and since the language granting the authority to regulate and enforce the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is virtually the same as it is in the Civil Rights Act, GAO held that EEOC may include provisions in age discrimination regulations for the payment of attorneys' fees at the administrative level to a prevailing party.