The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Department of Labor have both announced that virtually all of their functions have temporarily ceased, pending adoption of a budget for FY 2014 by the federal government. Although the EEOC will allow claims to be filed so as to protect claimants from missing filing deadlines, no claims will […]
EEOC Sues Over Criminal Background Checks
In a previous post here, I noted that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, had begun to focus on criminal background checks by employers. The thinking is that requiring criminal background checks can constitute illegal discrimination on the basis of race because a higher percentage of African Americans than Caucasians have criminal convictions. Thus, […]
EEOC Announces New Strategic Plan
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has issued a draft of its new 4-year strategic plan that is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2012. While the strategic plan doesn’t tell us exactly which cases the EEOC will find most important (and specific facts will generally determine the likelihood of the EEOC investigating a […]
New EEOC Rules Address When an Employer Can Rely on a Criminal Background Check in Making a Hiring Decision
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has finally issued long-awaited guidelines for employers who wish to use the results of a criminal background check to make hiring decisions. The guidelines are lengthy and convoluted, but some themes are clear. Before discussing the themes in the guidelines, it is important to understand why the EEOC cares […]
EEOC Experiences Record Number of Charges for FY 2011
The EEOC has reported that it received 99,922 charges during FY 2011. Of these, the largest number were claims of retaliation. Indeed, the trend seems to be that retaliation claims will be pursued even when the underlying discrimination claim seems to have no merit. Of the remaining claims filed in FY 2011, 35% alleged race […]
U.S. Supreme Court Rules That the First Amendment Religion Clauses Trump the Americans With Disabilities Act
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued the long-awaited decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC on the intersection of employee disability law with the religion clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The religion clauses won. Stay tuned for a longer post in a few days.
