EEOC holding third commission meeting on future enforcement priorities

On September 22, the EEOC is holding its third and final commission listening session to obtain public input on future enforcement priorities. The commission is asking public input on its Strategic Enforcement Plan for Fiscal Years 2022-2026, which sets long-term priorities for the agency. The first hearing, titled Advancing Racial and Economic Justice in the Workplace, was held in Buffalo on August 22. The second hearing, titled Identifying Vulnerable Workers and Reaching Underserved Communities, focused on those who are especially vulnerable to employment discrimination and was held September 12.

The final hearing, titled Shaping the EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Priorities, will have three panels of witnesses from civil rights and workers’ rights organizations, employer and human resource representatives, and attorneys representing plaintiffs and defendants in equal employment opportunity (EEO) matters.

Republican commissioners claim ‘administrative power grab’

Former EEOC Chair and now Commissioner Janet Dhillon and Commissioner Keith Sonderling penned an op-ed in the August 24 Wall Street Journal alleged that Chair Charlotte Burrows and career staffers are engaged in an “administrative power grab.” The commissioners claimed Burrows unilaterally issued “technical assistance” on the Bostock case last year, the enforcement of which has been enjoined by a federal district court in Tennessee.