Complaints of Bias Climbed in ‘92, EEOC Says : Workplace: The 70,339 filings were the highest since 1988. Race was the No. 1 concern, while claims of handicapped discrimination jumped.

Job-related discrimination complaints reached their second-highest annual total since the 1964 Civil Rights Act became law, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday.

The EEOC said for fiscal year 1992 ending Sept. 30, there were 70,339 complaints filed--including, for the first time, filings based on the new Americans with Disabilities Act.

That law, which took effect in June, expanded existing laws to prohibit discrimination against those with physical handicaps. There were 774 complaints based on this new law, a figure that represented 1.1% of the total.

However, EEOC Chairman Evan J. Kemp. Jr. noted in a statement that the ADA was in effect for just two months of fiscal year 1992, and later statistics show significant increases in ADA charges filed.

“These are really a lot of charges,” department spokeswoman Janice Hearty said. “We average around 60,000 per year.”

The all-time record was set in fiscal 1988, when 70,749 complaints were filed.

Complaints based on race continue to be the most frequently cited cause for filing, accounting for 40.8% of all charges filed. However, that figure represents a decline of 3% from the previous year.

Sex-based charges rose by 2.2%, to 29.8%, and the EEOC attributed this increase to a vastly higher number of alleged incidents of sexual harassment.

Nearly half of the complaints, 49.8%, came only after the person filing the charge had been fired, the EEOC said.

Settlements totaling $65.6 million were recovered in 1992, said EEOC General Counsel Donald R. Livingston, who added that that total is the second highest ever.

A record portion of that total, $50.7 million, came in settlements of age discrimination suits, Livingston said.

The EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The agency also enforces laws banning discrimination on the basis of age or physical disabilities.