Record Enforcement Year for EEOC | Blogs | Labor & Employment Law Perspectives

The EEOC recently disclosed that it secured more than $365.4 million dollars from private employers the past year. The amount is a record in monetary benefits collected, and represents a $700,000 increase over last year. About 10 percent of the total monetary benefits, $36.2 million, resulted from settlements or conciliation agreements in connection with alleged systemic employment violations (a primary focus of the EEOC). That figure is four times the amount recovered during the 2011 fiscal year. Further, the EEOC does not appear to be backing away from its aggressive investigative practices and broad interpretations of the federal anti-discrimination laws, nor can employers expect such a change with the re-election of President Obama. Based on representations by EEOC regional attorneys, employers can expect the agency to focus on the following in the upcoming year:

Continued focus on systemic litigation or national/regional class cases. Accordingly, employers can expect a continued increase in “company wide” investigations. This is troubling news for employers because of the cost of defending against such investigations and lawsuits.
Alleged discrimination in recruitment and hiring. In light of the EEOC’s recent interpretative guidance regarding the use of background checks in hiring released last April, it is safe to assume the use of criminal records will be a focus. Another focus is expected to be the use of pre-employment tests.
Enforcement of the ADA Amendments Act focusing on reasonable accommodations, including investigations of no-fault attendance and fixed-leave policies and 100-percent healed policies, in which employers require employees to be 100-percent healed before being permitted to return from medical or disability leave.
Emerging legal issues, including discrimination against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, and leave policies for pregnant workers.

What is clear with the present EEOC agenda is that employers should take care in responding to even the most benign single claimant charges of discrimination. Employers must be strategic in responding to overbroad requests for information regarding company policies and employment decisions for other employees because the EEOC is actively looking for cases to pursue on a class basis and pushing employers harder than ever for monetary settlements.

This blog is made available by Foley & Lardner LLP (“Foley” or “the Firm”) for informational purposes only. It is not meant to convey the Firm’s legal position on behalf of any client, nor is it intended to convey specific legal advice. Any opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Foley & Lardner LLP, its partners, or its clients. Accordingly, do not act upon this information without seeking counsel from a licensed attorney. This blog is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Communicating with Foley through this website by email, blog post, or otherwise, does not create an attorney-client relationship for any legal matter. Therefore, any communication or material you transmit to Foley through this blog, whether by email, blog post or any other manner, will not be treated as confidential or proprietary. The information on this blog is published “AS IS” and is not guaranteed to be complete, accurate, and or up-to-date. Foley makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation or content of the site. Foley expressly disclaims all other guarantees, warranties, conditions and representations of any kind, either express or implied, whether arising under any statute, law, commercial use or otherwise, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. In no event shall Foley or any of its partners, officers, employees, agents or affiliates be liable, directly or indirectly, under any theory of law (contract, tort, negligence or otherwise), to you or anyone else, for any claims, losses or damages, direct, indirect special, incidental, punitive or consequential, resulting from or occasioned by the creation, use of or reliance on this site (including information and other content) or any third party websites or the information, resources or material accessed through any such websites. In some jurisdictions, the contents of this blog may be considered Attorney Advertising. If applicable, please note that prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Photographs are for dramatization purposes only and may include models. Likenesses do not necessarily imply current client, partnership or employee status.