EEOC on Wellness Programs and EEO-1s

The EEOC has posted webinar recordings of two significant new rules: Wellness and EEO-1 requirements.

Feds publish a Halloween trick for employers

Have you seen Worker.gov? It is a how-to manual for employees to file charges with the full gauntlet of federal labor-and-employment agencies―EEOC, NLRB, OSHA, and DOL Wage-and-Hour Division.

Is social recruiting discriminatory?

Yesterday, I noted that the EEOC is examining the impact of “big data” on how employers reach employment decisions.

Looking at an issue and doing something about it, however, are two entirely different animals. I wonder what business the EEOC has looking at this issue at all. The EEOC’s mission is to eliminate discrimination from the workplace. Certainly, there is no claim that neutral data points intentionally or invidiously discriminate based on protected classes.

EEOC reiterates its enforcement priorities for the next four years

Earlier this week, the EEOC announced its updated Strategic Enforcement Plan for 2017 – 2021. So, what issues must employers have on their radar? From the EEOC’s press release:

Don’t ignore unpaid leaves as a reasonable accommodation

Two recent EEOC lawsuits (here and here) illustrate the risk employers continue to take when they deny unpaid leaves of absence to employees as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA.

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-10-21

The most expensive bottle of orange juice ever

Today, I bring you a first for the blog. A magic trick. Read along as the EEOC transforms a $1.69 bottle of OJ into $277,565.

I’ll let the EEOC explain it’s own magic:

Can you require flu shots for your employees?

As the calendar winds its way into autumn, and as the temperature starts to trend downward, we move into flu season. Which is why should pay special attention to this story from Employment Law 360:

What employers can learn from EEOC's new Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation

Yesterday, the EEOC published its final Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues. It’s the agency’s first formal guidance on this issue since 1998, and was long overdue. After all, according to EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang, “Retaliation is asserted in nearly 45 percent of all charges we receive and is the most frequently alleged basis of discrimination.” She adds, “The examples and promising practices included in the guidance are aimed at assisting all employers reduce the likelihood of retaliation.”

EEOC offers guidance for Youth@Work

Do you employee minors? If so, you should be aware of the wage-and-hour laws for child labor. The Department of Labor, however, isn’t the only federal agency taking a look at your under-18 employees. Recently, the EEOC launched an entire portal devoted to the issue.

The microsite, entitled Youth@Work, is the agency’s education and outreach campaign to promote equal employment opportunity for teenage workers.

Paternalism vs. pregnancy discrimination

Paternalism and pregnant workers do not mix. Case in point? According to this EEOC press release, the agency has sued a North Carolina retail-furniture franchise for pregnancy discrimination.

EEOC pushes NLRB to find common ground on workplace harassment

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the NLRB’s expanded coverage of protected concerted activity. One area over which I’ve been particularly critical is the NLRB’s position on the confidentiality of workplace investigations and workplace civility policies.

Now, the EEOC has also taken up the challenge.

EEOC on pregnancy-related limitations and restrictions at work

It’s been nearly a year since the EEOC updated its administrative guidance on pregnancy discrimination to account for the Supreme Court’s holding in Young v. UPS regarding an employer’s obligations to accommodate its pregnant workers.

In case the EEOC’s guidance is too dense for you to digest, the agency has chosen to commemorate its participation in the White House United State of Women Summit with the publication of two new pregnancy-related resources.

Are ban-the-box laws actually causing more racial discrimination?

I read with great interest an article on vox.com, entitled, “Ban the box” might just replace one kind of discrimination with another. The article discusses two recent studies, one by The Brookings Institution and the other by the University of Chicago, both of which concluded that ban-the-box laws have the unintended consequence of causing more discrimination against minorities, not less:

What you need to know about EEOC’s proposed national-origin-discrimination guidance

I had a post prepared in my brain about the EEOC’s recently published proposed Enforcement Guidance on National Origin Discrimination. And then Robin Shea beat me to the punch. So, instead of recreating the wheel, I am instead directing you to her always excellent Employment & Labor Insider blog, where she shares 25 quick takes (no kidding!) on the EEOC’s proposed guidance.

EEOC’s final rules on employer wellness programs provides clear path for employers

Yesterday, the EEOC published its long-awaited rules that describe how the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act apply to wellness programs offered by employers that request health information from employees and their spouses. Both rules take effect July 18, 2017.

EEOC issues new guidance on leaves of absence under the ADA

What does the EEOC want you know about your treatment of employees’ leaves of absence under the ADA? A whole bunch, according to this guidance, published yesterday by the agency.

The guidance, aptly entitled Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act, addresses, according to the EEOC, “the prevalence of employer policies that deny or unlawfully restrict the use of leave as a reasonable accommodation,” which the agency believes “serve as systemic barriers to the employment of workers with disabilities.”

Transgender bathrooms is a solution in search of a problem

In the blogging world, when you snooze, you lose. Yesterday, my fellow bloggers were all over the EEOC’s publication of guidance on bathroom access for transgender employees:

• Eric Meyer’s Employer Handbook Blog: Not letting transgender employees use the restroom of their gender identity is sex discrimination 
• Phil Miles’s Lawffice Space: EEOC issues transgender employee fact sheet 
• Robin Shea’s Employment & Labor Insider: EEOC posts fact sheets on LGBT discrimination, transgender issues 
• Dan Schwartz’s Connecticut Employment Law Blog: Bathroom Access Rights Guaranteed By Title VII
• The Russ Runkel Report: EEOC & OSHA on transgender bathrooms access

Here’s the bottom line.

The EEOC says, “Preventing Discrimination is Good Business”

Are you a small-business owner? Do you have problems understanding your obligations under the federal employment-discrimination laws? Then the EEOC is here for you.

Last week, the agency published a one-page face sheet, entitled, “Preventing Discrimination is Good Business” (available in English and 29 other languages, such as Amharic, Marshallese, or Tagalog … really).

EEOC sues employers challenging sexual orientation discrimination as Title-VII sex discrimination

Yesterday, the EEOC filed two lawsuits, each claiming that an employer’s discrimination against an LGBT employee violated Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination.

From the EEOC’s press release:

EEOC is now an open book for employees, grants access to employer position statements

Back in the day, if an employee wanted to obtain a copy of an employer’s EEOC position statement, the employee had to go through a process under the federal Freedom of Information Act. For starters, the employee had to wait until after the EEOC issued a right to sue letter, and the EEOC could deny the request for a variety of reasons.

By back in the day, I mean last week. Because, last week, the EEOC implemented a yuge (inner Trump voice) policy change, which provides for the release of an emplyer’s position statements and non-confidential attachments to an employee, upon request, during the investigation of a charge of discrimination. Employees or their representatives must request the document. The agency will not automatically turn it over. But, employees avoid the formality of the FOIA-request process. FOIA, on the other hand, still governs employers’ requests for copies of employees’ submissions (How is that fair?)