Insights

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Category: Agency Enforcement

What’s With the Big Increase Recently in EEOC “Commissioner Charges”?

Enforcement data recently released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) show that Commissioners once again heavily used their authority to launch discrimination investigations by filing Commissioner charges. Commissioners filed 35 new Commissioner charges in FY 2023, eclipsing last year’s 20-year record of 29 such charges and wildly surpassing the three Commissioner charges filed in each of FY 2020 and...
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Category: Labor Relations

Constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board Challenged in Recent Litigation

Even though the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) has been around for almost 90 years, two companies are now pursuing litigation questioning the agency’s constitutionality. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) created the NLRB in 1935, and the Board has issued thousands of administrative rulings since then. Nevertheless, SpaceX and Trader Joe’s are challenging the Board’s very constitutionality...
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Category: Congress

U.S. Senate Rejects Employment-Related Immigration Reforms

A bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate to address immigration issues, including some significant employment-related changes, fizzled last week  while attached to a military assistance spending bill for Ukraine and Israel. Although the Senate’s failure to approve the immigration changes stifled any chances for meaningful reform this year, the willingness of a group of Senators from both sides of the...
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Category: Immigration

USCIS Finalizes Rules Revamping H-1B Lottery System and Increasing Visa Fees

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued two new rules in its continuing effort to make the H-1B visa selection process more efficient and less susceptible to fraud. One rule revamps the registration system for the H-1B specialty occupations visa program, and the other increases visa fees for the first time since 2016. The first rule implements a new beneficiary-centric lottery proposed last October that...
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Category: Veterans

Labor Department Now Accepting Applications for 2024 “HIRE Vets Medallion Awards”

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS) is accepting applications for its 2024 HIRE Vets Medallion Award, an honor given annually around Veterans Day to employers that have shown commitment to hiring and retaining military veterans. Several CWC members have received the award since the program began in 2019. Employers who wish to be considered for...
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Category: Discrimination and Harassment

EEOC Launches Outreach Initiative Aimed at “Vulnerable Workers and Underserved Communities”

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has launched an initiative entitled “Enhancing OutREACH to Vulnerable Workers and Underserved Communities,” the agency announced January 29, 2024. The agency’s newest commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, will lead the initiative. The initiative will include in-person and virtual listening sessions with stakeholders throughout the country to identify barriers to reporting discrimination, development of recommendations on effective...
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Category: Compliance Reporting and Recordkeeping

California’s 2023 Pay Data Reporting Includes Revised Guidance, Data Specifications

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) has opened California’s mandated Pay Data Reporting cycle for calendar year 2023. New requirements are likely to increase the burden on covered employers. They still must report the total number of workers by race, ethnicity, sex, pay band, and federal EEO-1 job category, but within that total, employers now also must identify three additional data...
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Category: Compensation

Biden Administration Proposes Pay Range Disclosure Rule for Federal Contractors

The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council has proposed a new pay transparency rule that would require federal contractors to disclose pay ranges for all open jobs on or in connection with covered federal contracts. Two years after President Biden issued an Executive Order calling for pay transparency in federal contracting, the Biden Administration published its proposal in the Federal Register on January...
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Category: Compliance Reporting and Recordkeeping

CWC Comments to DOL Support Extension of VETS-4212 Report, Without Change

The Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) supports the three-year extension of the Federal Contractor Veterans’ Employment Report (VETS-4212) proposed by the U.S. Labor Department’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS). Covered federal contractors must file the VETS-4212 report annually with DOL-VETS. It provides a snapshot of a contractor’s workforce broken down by protected veteran status, location, and job category. Contractors...
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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

Do As We Say?: CFPB Settles Race Discrimination Class Action for $6 Million

After protracted litigation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has agreed to settle an employment discrimination class lawsuit for $6 million, including $1.5 million in attorneys’ fees. The lawsuit began ten years ago, when minority employees accused the CFPB of systemic discrimination,  including persistent pay discrimination compounded by a discriminatory performance review system. In light of this lawsuit, it is ironic...

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