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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published proposed enforcement guidance for workplace harassment for public comment on October 2, 2023. The proposed guidance can be found on the EEOC’s website. While the EEOC attempted to provide updated harassment guidance under the Trump administration in 2017, final guidance was never issued and if this new guidance is finalized it would represent the first time the EEOC has updated its workplace harassment guidance in nearly a quarter century. …
Continue Reading Employers Take Note: Harassment Will Soon Have a Broader Meaning with the EEOC

Although the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA” or the “Act”) has been in effect since June 27, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC” or the “Commission”) last week, published proposed rules regarding the enforcement of the Act. The PWFA has been covered in a previous blog post, but in short, the law requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation for pregnant employees, regardless of whether that pregnancy has resulted in a disability as was the case under the Americans with Disabilities Act. …
Continue Reading EEOC Belatedly Proposes Rules for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

Federal contractors have had a flurry of headlines to keep up with over the last few months. Most prominent among them is the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s interim rule barring federal agencies and contractors from using TikTok or any other ByteDance product (the “Covered Applications”). …
Continue Reading TikTok “Bytes” the Dust for Federal Contractors and Other Important Updates

On May 15, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) updated its COVID-19-related technical guidance in response to the Biden administration’s termination of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, 2023. The updated guidance cautions employers about their continuing obligations under the Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Rehabilitation Act, and other equal employment opportunity laws. …
Continue Reading EEOC Issues Guidance Following Expiration of COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

As of late, it seems we can hardly go a day without hearing about the rise of artificial intelligence (“AI”) and its potential to disrupt all manner of industries. But awareness of AI’s potential implications to our careers has only recently hit the mainstream. Many employees may be surprised to learn that a number of employers have already been using AI to make employment decisions for some time, especially in the hiring process. And the number of employers using AI in the workplace has been growing rapidly. Some employers are even using AI to make promotion decisions.
Continue Reading EEOC Issues Guidance on Use of AI in Employment Decisions

On January 10, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published a draft of its Strategic Enforcement Plan (“SEP”) in the Federal Register, which outlines the enforcement goals for the Commission for the next four years. While the Agency aims to target a number of new areas – such as underserved workers and pregnancy fairness in the workplace – it is notable that it listed as priority number one the elimination of barriers in recruitment and hiring caused or exacerbated by employers’ use of artificial intelligence. …
Continue Reading EEOC Pushes for Greater Enforcement on AI

On August 16, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment to Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P. (Walmart), who was accused by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of engaging in sex discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by offering temporary light duty to employees who were injured on the job, but denying a similar accommodation to pregnant employees. …
Continue Reading Excluding Pregnant Workers from Light Duty Did Not Violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 7th Circuit Holds

The U.S. Equal Employment Commission (“EEOC”) has recently updated its Technical Assistance Questions and Answers, “What You Should Know About COVID-10 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws,” (“Q&A)  and taken the position that employers may only screen employees for COVID-19 if it is a business necessity that is justified by “current pandemic circumstances and individual workplace circumstances” because a COVID-19 viral test is a medical examination within the meaning of the ADA.
Continue Reading EEOC States Employers Must Show Business Necessity to Test Workers for COVID-19