DOJ Undeterred by Recent Court Setbacks on Its Workplace Antitrust Enforcement Strategy

As we reported recently, in the wake of an Executive Order (E.O.) issued by President Biden last year designed to foster competition in the marketplace, it was only a matter of time before federal agencies began adopting antitrust enforcement policies that would impact workplace compliance. And although the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently lost two jury trials in high...

OFCCP Urged To Retain Use of Evidentiary Standards in Its Pre-Enforcement Notices

Our affiliated non-profit association, the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), has filed written comments with the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in response to the agency’s formal proposal to revise the 2020 “Enforcement Rule” issued by the Trump Administration that established a framework for identifying, documenting, and communicating discrimination allegations. OFCCP is proposing the changes based...

Comments Filed With OFCCP Supporting Extension of FAAP Process

Our affiliated non-profit association, the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), has filed written comments with the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in support of the agency’s announced intent to seek formal approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to extend its Functional Affirmative Action Program (FAAP) application and approval process for several...

OSHA Proposes To Reinstate Electronic Injury and Illness Data Reporting

The Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published a proposed rule to revive and expand broad electronic reporting requirements for certain workplace injury and illness data, a rule that had been largely rescinded by the Trump Administration’s DOL before it went into effect. If implemented as proposed, the rule would require employers in covered industries...

Biden Nominates Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Kalpana Kotagal to the EEOC

President Biden has nominated plaintiffs’ lawyer Kalpana Kotagal to a seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) to replace current Commissioner and Trump appointee Janet Dhillon when Dhillon’s term ends on July 1, 2022. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Ms. Kotagal will give Democrats a majority on the EEOC for the first time since the Biden...

Discrimination Charges Filed With EEOC Dropped to 30-Year Low Last Year

According to final enforcement and litigation statistics for fiscal year (FY) 2021 (October 1, 2020 – September 30, 2021) released recently by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency received 61,331 charges of discrimination last year, the lowest annual total in the past 30 years, and the fifth year in a row in which the number of charges filed...