A proposed rule published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on October 9, 2020 offers the possibility of expanded information-sharing with respondents/employers in connection with the agency’s conciliation efforts. The proposed expanded disclosures may enhance the value of conciliation to those parties.
Continue Reading EEOC’s Proposed New Procedures May Enhance Value of Conciliation
While most EEOC enforcement actions are related to individual complaints of discrimination and/or retaliation, so-called “pattern or practice” matters are those in which the EEOC attempts to show that an employer has systematically engaged in discriminatory activities. On September 3, 2020, the EEOC issued an opinion letter clarifying that section 707(a) does not provide a freestanding violation of Title VII, and that claims under section 707(a) are subject to section 706’s pre-suit requirements.
Continue Reading The EEOC Scales Back its Own Enforcement Powers through Clarification of its Interpretation of Pattern or Practice Case Requirements
In a little-publicized move near the beginning of the U.S. coronavirus lockdown, the EEOC temporarily suspended issuing right-to-sue letters with respect to most charges of discrimination. the EEOC resumed sending out right-to-sue letters on August 3, 2020, and announced that any suspended notices would be sent out between that date and September 30, 2020.
Continue Reading As the EEOC Resumes Sending out Right-To-Sue Letters, Employers Should Expect an Increase in Discrimination Lawsuits
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the EEOC has periodically released updates to its Technical Assistance Questions and Answers, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.,” These questions and answers have provided employers with much needed guidance on the EEOC’s position on how employers can ensure the safety of their employees while at the same time not running afoul of the ADA.
Continue Reading EEOC Releases New Guidance to Employers on Returning Employees to Work and ADA Compliance
Today the EEOC published a Notice in the Federal Register, announcing a delay in its collection of EEO-1 Component 1 data — until March of 2021 — due to the coronavirus pandemic. (FR Doc. 2020-09876). Component 1 data is what most employers associate with the EEO-1 Report: employment data summarized by job category, race/ethnicity, and gender. There will now be no EEO-1 Reports submitted in 2020.
Continue Reading EEOC Postpones EEO-1 Reports to 2021
On April 23, 2020, the EEOC updated its Technical Assistance Questions and Answers, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws,” to address questions that many employers are struggling with related to employee COVID-19 testing. The EEOC’s new guidance confirms that employers are authorized to administer COVID-19 tests before allowing employees to enter the workplace, and that doing so does not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Continue Reading EEOC Confirms Employer-Mandated COVID-19 Testing Does Not Violate the ADA
EEOC guidance on COVID-19 continues to evolve as the medical community learns more about the virus. On April 9, 2020, the EEOC expanded the list of symptoms about which employers may ask when screening employees entering the workplace, without running afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Continue Reading EEOC Updates Guidance Regarding COVID-19 Workplace Inquiries
The EEOC recently published guidance under its FAQ page regarding the question of how to report nonbinary gender employees on the annual EEO-1 report. The EEO-1 report is a yearly survey that employers must complete and submit to the agency which requires the employer to identify characteristics of its workforce such as race/ethnicity and sex. This survey does not allow the employer or the affected employee to abstain from responding, which creates difficult decisions for the employer who must fill-in-the-blank when an employee declines to self-identify.
Continue Reading New Guidance Issued by the EEOC as to Nonbinary Gender Employees
We previously posted on the unfortunate ruling in March 2019, when a Federal Court reinstituted the “Component 2” wage reporting in the annual EEO-1 Report. The highly controversial requirement – that employers annually report, to the government, W-2 earnings and hours worked for all employees – had been proposed in 2016, but stayed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2017.
Continue Reading Help Desk Opens for EEO-1 Pay Data, as September 30th Looms Near
Businesses with at least 100 employees and federal contractors with at least 50 employees must annually file an EEO-1 Private Sector Report disclosing to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the number of women and minorities they employ by job category, race, sex and ethnicity
Continue Reading Ready? Set? Better Get Going. D.C. Judge Rules Employers Must Begin Submitting 2017 and 2018 EEO-1 Pay Data September 30, 2019