The EEOC’s Increase in Commissioner Charges

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
06/04/2024
Early in my law practice, one of the first matters I worked on was an EEOC Commissioner’s charge.  It had been filed against a public school system that announced its goal for new teacher hires in the coming school year was an average of two years’ experience. An EEOC Commissioner initiated the charge and an investigation ensued as to whether that stated goal was in fact a proxy for either intentional age discrimination or created an adverse...
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EEOC Files Amicus Brief in AI discrimination case

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/02/2024
In an earlier post I reported that a federal court dismissed a lawsuit in January alleging that an algorithm-based screening tool illegally discriminates against people who are protected by law. In that case, Mobley v. Workday, the Court granted Mobley leave to amend his complaint.  New ammunition has further fueled this case– the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed an amicus brief supporting Mobley. The EEOC’s brief argues...
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EEOC Files Amicus Brief In Support Of Religious Accommodations For Refusing Mandatory Covid-19 Vaccinations

In a recent amicus brief filed in the 8th Circuit, the EEOC has urged heightened protections for workers who object to mandatory vaccinations due to sincerely-held religious beliefs.  The EEOC's amicus brief highlights the unique difficulties employers face when forced to accommodate a religious belief under Title VII. The case, Ringhofer v. Mayo Clinic Ambulance, involves two longtime employees who worked as a paramedic and registered nurse for...
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Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind: ADA Week continued

Nearly everyone recognizes the Grateful Dead song “Casey Jones.”  It was first performed live by the Dead on June 20, 1969, at Fillmore East in New York (it’s track 8 on Workingman’s Dead).  It tells the true story of John Luther “Casey” Jones, from Cayce, Kentucky. Casey was a railroad engineer who drove a fast train and who died in 1900 when he collided with another train. A few days after the accident, Jones’s friend Wallace...
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Repercussions of Supreme Court’s Groff Decision Start Appearing In Religious Exemption Cases

The impact of the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling in Groff v. DeJoy, which raised the standard for employers to accommodate religious exemptions, is beginning to be felt in lower courts.  Gone are the days when an employer can lawfully disregard a religious accommodation if it imposes more than a de minimis cost on the business.  With Groff, employers must now demonstrate that the burden of granting a religious accommodation for an employee...
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ADA May Require Reasonable Accommodations Related To Work Commutes

Federal Circuits are split over whether the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to accommodate commuting or transportation difficulties outside the work environment.  In late July 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided a case applying the ADA to an employee who requested a schedule change because his cataracts made it difficult to commute safely at night.  The Seventh Circuit concluded the ADA might...
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EEOC Releases Advice on Artificial Intelligence and Title VII

Vincent Jackson
Vincent Jackson
05/23/2023
On May 18, 2023, the EEOC released a technical assistance document, “Assessing Adverse Impact in Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence Used in Employment Selection Procedures Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”   This document offers advice on the use of algorithmic decision-making tools that employers are more often using for recruitment, promotion and firing.  The document also attempts to distinguish between...
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EEOC Issues Harassment Prevention and Response Guidance

The EEOC has issued guidance on “Promising Practices for Prevention and Addressing Harassment in the Federal Sector.”  While the guidance provides recommended practices for federal government workplaces, it offers sound advice for other public sector and private sector employers.  Here is a sampling of the EEOC’s recommendations that are applicable to other employers too: Annually issue and distribute to all employees, and prominently post,...
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New Mandatory EEOC Poster Released

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/22/2022
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a new "Know Your Rights" poster (dated October 20, 2022) that replaces its prior "EEO is the Law" poster.  Any employer with at least 15 employees are required to display this poster in the workplace. The new poster is two pages, with the first applying to all covered employers and the second detailing requirements for federal contractors and businesses receiving federal financial...
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EEOC's LGBT Bathroom/Dress Code/Locker Room Guidance Gets Nixed By Another Federal Court Judge

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/05/2022
A Texas federal court judge just ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) June 2021 Guidance that permits exceptions for LGBT employees from certain policies on bathrooms, dress codes and locker rooms was unlawful.   In Texas v. EEOC, et al., 2:21-CV-194-Z (N.D. Tex. Oct. 1, 2022), District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, found that the EEOC's Guidance had improperly interpreted the scope of the Supreme...
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