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 FY 2021. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), the EEOC may investigate an allegation of an employer violation if a Commissioner files a discrimination charge. Commissioner charges typically arise when an EEOC field office learns about potential discrimination in a workplace where no individual has filed a charge; when an EEOC field office investigating a discrimination charge learns about new allegations that it cannot add to the existing charge; or an EEOC Commissioner learns about a potential violation. The mere fact that a Commissioner has filed a charge does not necessarily mean that an EEOC lawsuit will follow.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, can read more here.