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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U.S. EEOC Will Meet to Rescind Workplace Harassment Guidance
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will meet on January 22 to consider the rescission of its guidance on workplace harassment. The Harassment Guidance is a critically important resource that helps ensure all workers can work safely and with dignity. Between FY 2016 and 2023, more than 1 in 3 discrimination charges received by the EEOC included an allegation of harassment based on race, gender, or other characteristics. The guidance was issued in 2024 following a notice and comment period, during which the EEOC received more than 38,000 comments.
Impact: The document provides much-needed updated guidance for the first time in nearly a quarter century. It reflects notable developments in the law and provides more than 70 examples of how the law applies to different factual scenarios, including harassment of survivors of gender-based violence, Black people and other people of color, teenagers, individuals with disabilities, immigrants, pregnant workers, and harassment of people online. Rescinding the Harassment Guidance will not alter workers’ rights under federal anti-discrimination laws, but getting rid of this resource will create confusion and make it harder for workers to enforce their right to be free from harassment in the workplace and for employers to understand their obligations.
In Power Grab, EEOC Rescinds Voting Procedures
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas and Commissioner Brittany Panuccio voted to rescind the commission’s voting procedures. These procedures formalized longstanding agency practice, like document circulation timelines and the right of any commissioner to agenda a public meeting before a commission vote could take place. Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal voted no, and her motions to delay the rescission or replace it with a temporary suspension were not agreed to.
Impact: This is the latest step in Lucas’s effort to reshape the EEOC from the bipartisan commission envisioned by Congress to an agency that carries out President Trump’s political agenda. Lucas has indicated that she plans to undermine civil rights protections by rolling back longstanding regulations and guidance, including the workplace harassment guidance, the EEO-1 data collection, guidance and regulations prohibiting unjustified discriminatory effects (disparate impact discrimination), and more. Centralizing her authority and removing opportunities for dissent and transparency are a step toward that goal. These changes harm all workers, particularly Black workers and other workers of color, women workers, LGBTQ workers, and workers with disabilities.
U.S. Department of Transportation Makes Renewed Deferred Resignation Offer to Employees
The U.S. Department of Transportation renewed its efforts to reduce its workforce through deferred resignation. This initiative targeted workers in the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and the Maritime Administration.
Impact:
The civil rights office enforces federal employment civil rights laws internally across the department, and externally for beneficiaries of the agency’s financial assistance. As part of a broader trend of degrading civil rights enforcement across the federal government, targeting this office for deferred resignations will likely lead to lower capacity to address instances of employment discrimination in these areas.
U.S. DOL To Consider Black Lung Protection Rollback
The U.S. Department of Labor informed the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Secretary of Labor intends to reconsider portions of the Silica Rule. The rule reduced exposure limits for miners to airborne silica — crystals that can reach deep into the lungs when inhaled — to 50 micrograms. The rule also called on companies to conduct more testing for silica in all types of mines and expand medical surveillance programs that are available to coal miners.
Impact: The DOL had estimated the rule would prevent more than 1,000 deaths and 3,700 cases of black lung. Mine workers are contracting black lung at younger ages, and the DOL found that disease occurs at exponentially higher rates in regions like Appalachia where intensive coal mining has been practiced for decades.
Trump Nominates Carter Crow to be EEOC General Counsel
President Trump nominated Carter Crow to be General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Crow is a Houston-based attorney whose career has focused on representing corporations in employment cases, with an emphasis on wage and hour claims. In a recent interview, Crow stated that he is “strongly supportive of all of the priorities” of EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas.
Impact: The EEOC general counsel plays a critical role in enforcing our federal civil rights laws in the workplace. EEOC Chair Lucas and Commissioner Panuccio have made it clear that they see President Trump, not the law, as their highest authority. They have followed Trump's lead in targeting LGBTQ workers, immigrant workers, and more. If confirmed, Carter Crow must follow the law and the agency’s mission, not Trump, Lucas, and Panuccio. The Senate must scrutinize Crow’s record and hold him accountable to that responsibility.
Black Women Disproportionately Impacted By Trump Administration Layoffs and Policy Changes
Around 300,000 Black women have exited the labor force in the U.S. in the past three months driven largely by layoffs and policy changes under the Trump administration, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics and other experts.
Impact:
In addition to the mass firings and layoffs of federal workers, the Trump administration’s crackdown on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility has changed the workforce landscape in the corporate world, leading to large numbers of Black women leaving the workforce.
DOL Withdraws Proposed Rule Before Publication to Amend Child Labor Protections
There was never publicly available information about precisely what DOL was considering, but NELP opposes any attempts to weaken child labor laws.
Impact: There will be no changes, at least for now, to DOL child labor restrictions.
Trump Orders Payment of $100,000 for Any New Visas Issued to Foreign Workers in Certain Highly Skilled Professions
This payment is designed to try to stem abuse of this program and instead make sure employers make adequate efforts to fill the positions with people already living in the United States.
Impact: With the new fee applying only to new visas and not to existing visa holders, it remains to be seen just how effective the new policy will be.
Trump Issues “The Gold Card” Executive Order, Allowing People and Employers To Purchase Immigration Visas for $1 Million and $2 Million Respectively
Visas are very hard to come by, with many people waiting more than a decade to immigrate to the United States to escape oppressive conditions and be reunited with family members.
Impact: The United States will now start the unseemly practice of selling visas to those who can afford to spend exhorbitant amounts of money, rather than those who have waited in line and have compelling reasons to immigrate.
The Centers for Disease Control End Telework for Workers With Disabilities Who Need Reasonable Accommodations
The federal government is required to provide reasonable accommodations to workers with disabilities so they can perform their jobs. Often, teleworking is the most effective accommodation.
Impact: Once the current accommodations expire, workers with disabilities will find it much more difficult to continue working at the CDC, perhaps leading to further reductions in an already depleted and much needed workforce.