Category: Agency Enforcement

New GAO Report Details Inconsistencies in EEOC Charge Intake Processing, Other Areas

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the research and investigatory arm of the U.S. Congress, has released a new report looking at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC or Commission) charge intake and processing operations. And while the report ostensibly focuses on inconsistencies in the intake process, it also points out wide variations in the average time it takes the...

EEOC Releases Draft 2022-2026 “Strategic Plan” for Public Comment

As anticipated, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) has published its draft “Strategic Plan” for fiscal years (FY) 2022-2026 for public comment. The high-level Strategic Plan (Plan), once adopted, is designed to outline the EEOC’s enforcement and management goals over the next five years, and the strategy for achieving them. More specifics as to how the EEOC...

EEOC Ends Fiscal Year 2022 With a Flurry of New Lawsuits

It is not unusual for a federal enforcement agency with litigation authority such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) to wrap up its fiscal year (FY) by filing a slew of new lawsuits or to announce new settlements to demonstrate that agency lawyers are doing their job. That said, the EEOC may have set a new milestone...

Labor Department Files Two OFCCP Lawsuits, Doubling Previous Total

Despite the fact that we fully expected the Biden Administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) to be aggressive in filing formal enforcement actions against federal contractors for failure to comply with requirements imposed by the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), there had been only two OFCCP-related lawsuits filed by DOL since President Biden took office – until now....

Federal Court Vacates EEOC’s Expanded SOGI Guidance

A federal district court in Texas has vacated expanded enforcement guidance issued last year by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) describing how Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. According to the court, the EEOC’s guidance, which was issued in the wake of the Supreme Court’s...

DOL Proposes More Employee-Friendly Independent Contractor Test Under the FLSA

As expected, the Biden Administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) has formally proposed rescinding interpretive regulations issued during the Trump Administration for determining whether workers are employees or independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Instead, DOL is proposing to codify rules that will make it much more likely that an individual will be classified as an employee rather...