Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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IRS Fires 25 Percent of Its Workforce and Eliminates Civil Rights Office
The Internal Revenue Service began layoffs of some 20,000 workers. The agency’s civil rights office, which protects taxpayers from discrimination, will be eliminated.
Impact:
The cuts come during the agency’s busiest season, with the annual tax filing deadline of April 15 approaching. Experts have raised concerns that the government could see a sharp drop in revenue as individuals and businesses see opportunities to take advantage of a diminished IRS to cheat on their taxes. The IRS also plays a critical role in fighting poverty for working people by administering programs like the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
OFCCP Director to Weaponize Agency Against Civil Rights
The new Trump-appointed director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Catherine Eschbach, told employees that the agency must “conduct an autopsy” of its actions and regulations. Eschbach wrote that the agency has until late April to verify that companies are no longer utilizing affirmative action plans, and will advise Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on ways to use the agency’s investigative authority to intimidate corporations, nonprofits, foundations, associations, and universities that practice diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Impact:
Until Trump’s rescission of Executive Order 11246, OFCCP was dedicated to ensuring equal opportunity in workplaces at companies and other institutions that contract with the federal government. The Trump administration now seeks to both rescind most of the agency’s mission and weaponize the agency against entities that attempt to continue to protect civil rights and utilize best practices to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Trump Administration guts the Civil Rights and Immigration Liaison Offices within the Department of Homeland Security
The Trump Administration fired virtually everyone from the offices within DHS that work to ensure that our nation's immigration policies are carried out in a manner that protects the civil rights of immigrants.
Impact:
Essentially, there is now no office within DHS through which immigrants can report any violations of their civil rights, giving the Trump administration even more free rein to carry out detention and removal proceedings in a cruel and illegal fashion.
Department of Justice Withdraws 11 Pieces of Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Compliance Guidance
Among the guidance that's been withdrawn is the type of access employers must give employees to know their rights under the ADA.
Impact:
This is yet another part of the Trump Administration's attack on the hard-won civil rights that workers should enjoy in this country.
The NLRB Drops a Case Against an Immigrant Detention Center which Allegedly Retaliated Against Detainees’ Concerted Activities
Detainees were working full time for as little as $1 per day and when they engaged in labor strikes, they were punished, including being sent to solitary confinement.
Impact:
With the NLRB dropping the case that was brought by the former General Counsel, it is clear that they will not protect immigrant detainees against abuse and unjust working conditions while they are in detention centers.
The Department of Justice and the EEOC Issue “Warning” Against “Illegal” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices
This is yet another attempt by the administration to scare employers into giving up their perfectly legal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, all of which are designed to help ensure compliance with the civil rights laws.
Impact:
As more employers become scared of the Administration's witch-hunts, they could scrap their best efforts to comply with the civil rights laws and make it harder for women, people of color, and other disadvantaged groups to fully and fairly compete for employment for which they are qualified.
Trump Removes a Directive Mandating that Federal Contractors Cannot Have Segregated Facilities for Their Employees
This has been a directive for federal contractors since the 1960s. Its removal continues the administration's attack on civil rights.
Impact:
Though other federal and state laws still prohibit such segregation, the administration is continuing to use it's platform to encourage the roll-back of civil rights.
Trump’s ban on transgender military service members is blocked by a federal judge
Ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes temporarily halts implementation of Trump’s ban against transgender individuals serving in the military.
Impact:
Judge Reyes held the ban violates equal protection because it both discriminates based on transgender status and sex and because “it is soaked in animus.” The temporary halt will keep transgender service members from the denial of essential medical care, paused deployments, forced administrative leave, and other harms.
EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas Sends A Letter to 20 Large Law Firms Demanding Information about their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices
The letter implies that Acting Chair Lucas believes that these firms' practices are discriminatory and violate the Civil Rights Act, though it fails to cite any evidence of discrimination. Former EEOC Commissioners and General Counsels have written a response, refuting Lucas' legal ability to ask for this information, and calling into question the justification for this letter in the first place.
Impact:
This letter is part of this administration's coordinated attack on this country's civil rights laws. The practices they are trying to threaten employers to abandon are the best tools employers have to ensure that they are hiring, employing, and promoting people free of discrimination, whether it be implicit or intentional.
Trump Rescinds the “Good Jobs” Biden Executive Order that Required Union Neutrality from Federal Contractors and Gave a Preference in Awarding Contracts to Companies that used Registered Apprenticeship Programs
The Biden era EO rewarded companies that recognized when workers wanted to form a union and that trained their workforces while paying them good wages.
Impact:
With the recsission of the Biden EO, companies that engage in union busting and pay low wages to their trainees will now have an advantage in securing federal contracts.