EEOC Chair Burrows provides insight to employers

EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows provided an overview of her priorities to participants of The Institute for Workplace Equality’s virtual Fall Compliance Conference on November 3. The agency is focused on systemic discrimination; retaliation; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and AI. Chair Burrows said the agency has been working with Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Director (and former EEOC Chair) Jenny Yang on the HIRE initiative, which is intended to expand job access for underutilized groups.

Other areas Chair Burrows discussed were:

• The agency’s updated harassment policy, which has been pending since the Obama administration and for which she is still seeking bipartisan support;
• Enforcement for fiscal year (FY) 2023, which she described as a “great year”;
• AI and how its use is affecting employment decisions; and
• Pay data collection, for which she said it was important to hear from employers because the EEOC wants it to be a win-win.

Chair Burrows is waiting for the Senate to confirm Kalpana Kotagal as the third Democratic commissioner and Karla Gilbride as EEOC General Counsel to replace Sharon Gustafson, who was fired by President Joe Biden.

EEOC published proposed strategic plan

The EEOC has published its proposed strategic enforcement plan on November 4, which we discussed in detail in the article on page ___.

Former Chair Janet Dhillon resigns from EEOC