EEOC plan reveals enforcement priorities

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released a draft of its Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) that spells out priorities such as stepped-up efforts against hiring discrimination and harassment, new protections for various vulnerable workers, preserving access to the legal system, and dealing with emerging issues like changes brought by the ADA Amendments Act.

Recruitment and hiring
The SEP says the EEOC will target class-based intentional discrimination as well as practices that seem neutral but adversely affect particular groups. The plan specifically mentions racial and ethnic minorities, older workers, women, and people with disabilities.

Examples of discriminatory policies and practices mentioned in the SEP are “the channeling/steering of individuals into specific jobs due to their status in a particular group, restrictive application processes, and the use of screening tools (e.g., pre-employment tests, background screens, date of birth screens in online applications) that adversely impact groups protected under the law.”

Harassment
The SEP states that although the EEOC has focused enforcement efforts on harassment for many years, the problem persists. The agency plans to reevaluate its strategies and refocus its efforts on a national education and outreach campaign aimed at both employees and employers.

Protecting vulnerable workers
The SEP also makes protecting immigrant, migrant, and other vulnerable workers a nationwide priority. The SEP says the EEOC will target “disparate pay, job segregation, harassment, trafficking, and discriminatory language policies.”

Access to the legal system
The SEP also explains how the EEOC plans to combat policies and practices that may discourage or prohibit workers from exercising their rights under employment discrimination laws. “These policies or practices include retaliatory actions; overly broad waivers; settlement provisions that prohibit filing charges with EEOC or providing information in EEOC or other legal proceedings; and failure to retain records required by EEOC regulations,” the SEP states.

The plan singles out retaliation as being of particular concern and points out that it is now the largest category of charges the EEOC receives. “To improve our effectiveness, the Commission believes that a targeted outreach and education effort aimed at educating both employers and employees about their rights and responsibilities under [equal employment opportunity] laws with respect to retaliation will make greater headway toward preventing retaliatory conduct in the workplace,” the plan states.

Emerging issues
The plan lists three current emerging issues the EEOC plans to target:

1. Issues surrounding the ADA Amendments Act will get special attention, “particularly coverage issues, and the proper application of ADA defenses, such as undue hardship, direct threat, and business necessity.”
2. The agency also plans to focus on how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals may be covered under the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
3. Another emerging issue cited is accommodating pregnancy when women have been forced onto unpaid leave after being denied accommodations routinely provided to similarly situated employees.

Comments sought
The EEOC is soliciting comments on the draft by 5:00 p.m. (ET) September 18 at strategic.plan@eeoc.gov. Comments also can be submitted by mail to Executive Officer, Office of the Executive Secretariat, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 131 M Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20507.

The EEOC will vote on the draft plan at the end of this fiscal year.