On November 17, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published a proposed update to its 2008 guidance on religious discrimination in the workplace.  The five member commission voted 3-2 to issue the proposed guidance with the two democratic members objecting. The proposed guidance can be accessed here.

Although the guidance has not been updated in 12 years, it is likely that this proposal in the waning days of the Trump administration, came at least in part due to recent religious liberty cases issued by the US Supreme Court.  Most recently, the case of Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, held that the “ministerial exception” under the religion clauses of the First Amendment which bars ministers from suing churches and other religious institutions for employment discrimination precluded cases filed by certain Catholic school teachers.  Although the teachers were not ordained ministers, the schools had argued that the exception nonetheless applied because they played a key role in teaching religion to their students.  The Court, in a 7-2 vote, agreed.Continue Reading EEOC Issues Proposed Updated Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination

Companies reopening their offices and facilities will be collecting sensitive personal and health information about their employees (as well as about customers, vendors, and other visitors) to track COVID-19 symptoms. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) typically places strict limits on the collection, use, and disclosure of health information about employees, the ongoing pandemic has prompted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to permit the widespread gathering of health information in the workplace in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Continue Reading Coronavirus Tracking Programs Need to Comply with Privacy Laws

On Thursday, April 23, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) updated its COVID-19 guidance for employers to include a provision allowing employers to test employees for the COVID-19 virus without running afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”).

Continue Reading The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Allows Employers to Test Employees for COVID-19

Online Filing System Sample Form
Component 2 EEO-1 Online Filing System Sample Form

After numerous delays and revisions the deadline for filing enhanced EEO-1 reports is now just three weeks away, due to be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) by September 30.  Component 1 Data should already have been filed…by May 31. The Component 1 data required affected employers to provide a list of employees organized by job category, race, ethnicity, and gender.Continue Reading Are You Prepared to do Your EEO-1 Reporting?

On October 24, 2018 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced that Denton County Texas will pay $115,000 to a female physician formerly employed by the county.  The EEOC filed suit in August 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging that Dr. Martha C. Storrie was paid less than her male counterpart for the same job in violation of the Equal Pay Act.  The court entered judgment in favor of the EEOC.
Continue Reading EEOC Announces Judgment on Equal Pay Claim

On October 4, 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released preliminary data on sexual harassment claims for FY 2018, which ended on September 30, 2018.  The document, entitled “What You Should Know: EEOC Leads the Way in Preventing Workplace Harassment” summarizes the enforcement and prevention actions taken by the EEOC in the almost two years since the agency released the report of its Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace in June 2016.
Continue Reading EEOC Sees Increase in Sexual Harassment Claims

Photo: Caitlin Regan via Flickr (CC by 2.0)

The EEOC announced on February 27, 2018 that it had reached a settlement in the agency’s first lawsuit alleging that parental leave policies which granted more rights to mothers discriminated against new fathers.  Details of the settlement were not announced.Continue Reading EEOC Settles Paternity Leave Case: Will Dads Be Getting Equal Time?

Our April 5, 2017 post highlighted a decision of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals finding that Title VII protections against discrimination on the basis of gender extend to sexual orientation.  That court referenced US Supreme Court decisions such as the 2015 same sex marriage case, Obergefell v. Hodges, in concluding that “[t]he logic of the Supreme Court’s decisions, as well as the common-sense reality that it is actually impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without discriminating on the basis of sex, persuade us that the time has come to overrule our previous cases that have endeavored to find and observe that line.”
Continue Reading Department of Justice Contradicts EEOC in Sexual Orientation Discrimination Case

Photo: Public Domain
Photo: Public Domain

Typically with an incoming administration there is a waiting period of sorts before changes in pending and certainly existing regulations kick in.  The current administration, however, appears to be working at an accelerated pace toward upending the status quo.  So, it appears time for a quick check-in on where we are and what to expect.

On Inauguration day, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Jan. 20 instructed federal agencies to freeze all pending regulations, a move that seems to include a number of labor and employment initiatives that were in the works under the Obama administration.

This type of freeze is not unusual when a new president takes office.  An action of this nature does not necessarily mean that significant changes are coming, but given candidate Trump’s campaign promise to roll back regulation on business, we can at least predict that the administration will be in no rush to move on the pending matters.
Continue Reading Two Weeks Into the Trump Administration: Where are we with Labor and Employment Regulations?

Co-written by: Jacqueline Botchman, a third year law student at the University of New Hampshire School of Law

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 publicized a revised proposal to expand pay data collection through the Employer Information Report (EEO-1). The proposed revision would require private employers and federal contractors with