PUTTING WORKERS FIRST?

Who are the Trump Administration & Congress (really) fighting for?
"Every decision . . . will be made to benefit American workers."
- President Trump, Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 2017
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Week 200
Nov 17, 2020

EEOC reveals new religious discrimination guidance.

  • The EEOC released new employer guidance for religious liberty in the workplace.
  • This is not the first time the Administration has expanded discrimination protection under the guise of religious freedom. This guidance could allow employers to thwart bias claims by claiming a religious exemption.
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EEOC
Week 198
Nov 02, 2020

Trump’s EEOC approves plan that may reduce agency’s jurisdiction.

  • The memorandum of understanding between the EEOC, DOJ, and DOL could shift some of the agency's legal authority and decision-making power to the other two agencies included.
  • This shift of power could allow the DOJ or DOL agencies to make decisions on discrimination cases. For example, DOJ and the EEOC have had major disagreements on past Title VII interpretations related to gender discrimination-allowing DOJ to have legal authority over these types of cases may leave workers at risk for workplace discrimination.
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EEOC
Week 193
Sep 30, 2020

New report reveals Trump’s EEOC is not capturing sufficient harrasment data.

  • A new GAO report shows that the EEOC does not track whether retaliation claims are connected to previous protected activity charges.
  • Connecting retaliation charges like harassment or discrimination to previous claims is integral to holding employers accountable for worker maltreatment.
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EEOC
Week 189
Sep 03, 2020

EEOC opinion letter makes discrimination suits more complicated for workers.

  • The EEOC issued an opinion letter that entangles section 707 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, by requiring additional steps to prove discrimination like a pre-suit and a conciliation process
  • This theory abandons long-standing practices of filing workplace discrimination suits and will make the legal process even more challenging for workers.
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EEOC
Week 175
May 29, 2020

Republican Chair of Trump’s EEOC unilaterally implements new conciliation program.

  • EEOC chair, Janet Dhillon announced a new 6-month pilot program - without a vote from the entire Board - that will allow the agency to determine if discrimination has occurred and require participation in a conciliation process before an employer can be sued.
  • Dhillon's decision to overhaul the conciliation process without input from the rest of the commission undermines the bipartisanship of the EEOC and jeopardizes the conciliation process which is used to eliminate workplace discrimination.
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EEOC
Week 174
May 19, 2020

Trump’s EEOC proposes rule that could limit legal liability of agency guidance.

  • The proposed rule states that its anti-discriminationguidance will be legally nonbinding and available to the public. Only guidance that is considered "significant" will be vetted through a public notice and comment process.
  • By limiting public input into EEOC guidance, the agency has more power to implement guidance that doesn’t support public interest or other anti-discrimination needs that workers value.
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EEOC
Week 172
May 07, 2020

EEOC revises “at-risk” worker guidance.

  • The revised EEOC guidance clarifies that the American Disability Act (ADA) prohibits employers from forcing an employee to stay home based on their disability, with the exception of a few specific situations.
  • Without this clarification, employers would have had more liberty to to ban workers from the workplace. Leaving it up to employers to decide if a worker's underlying condition, disability, or other "at-risk" conditions can lead to further discrimination in the workplace - especially as workers are beginning to return to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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coronavirus, EEOC
Week 170
Apr 23, 2020

EEOC guidance permits employers to test for COVID-19.

  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Center released a guidance that authorizes employers to test their employees before they enter the workplace.
  • The guidance does not clarify a few issues like whether employers can require employes to be tested on their own before returning to work or who is responsible for the cost of the tests. However, issuing tests before entry into the workplace will mitigate workplace exposure.
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coronavirus, EEOC
Week 152
Dec 17, 2019

EEOC repeals guidance that protects workers from forced arbitration of their civil rights claims.

  • The EEOC has revoked a policy guidance established over 20 years ago that stated that forced arbitration clauses that prevent workers from bringing discrimination claims to court conflict with the civil rights laws the agency is charged with enforcing.
  • The EEOC implements laws that protect workers against discrimination based on characteristics such as race, age, and religion. Without this EEOC guidance, workers will be forced to arbitrate even more cases of discrimination they bring against their employers, losing their access to the courts.
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Arbitration, EEOC
Week 138
Sep 12, 2019

The EEOC declines to continue to collect pay data from employers that aids in identifying where there is a gap in wages that harms women and others in protected classes such as people of color.

  • In ending this pay data collection, the EEOC loses an important tool in identifying pay discrimination based on membership in a protected class.
  • Without information broken down into demographic categories like ethnicity, sex, and race, employees may lose legal protection against workplace discrimination due to a lack of evidentiary data.
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EEOC, Equal Opportunity
Week 32
Aug 31, 2017

Trump administration suspends reporting requirement that takes on the wage gap.

  • The White House Office of Management and Budget suspended an Obama-era EEOC reporting requirement that employers must report what they pay employees by race and gender.
  • The EEOC and labor department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs will have more difficulty identifying compensation discrimination in terms of race or gender.
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DOL, EEOC, Equal Opportunity, OMB
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