The EEOC’s new regulatory agenda includes seven significant initiatives, most of which would rescind existing guidance, reporting requirements, or interpretive rules. Key items include rescission of EEO-1 reporting requirements, rescission of most or all of the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), and revisions to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations.
Several items on the EEOC’s agenda involve employer requirements that have sometimes been viewed as burdensome but that also serve as important compliance tools. EEO-1 reporting requires employers to collect workforce demographic data that many organizations incorporate into broader self-audits and compliance reviews. Similarly, UGESP provides a widely recognized framework for evaluating hiring and promotion procedures and addressing discrimination risks before they result in litigation. Even if some federal requirements are rescinded, many employers may retain or adapt these practices because the underlying compliance, litigation-risk, and state-law considerations will remain.
Employers should keep in mind that state and local demographic reporting requirements may continue to expand even if federal requirements change.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, can read more here. Members also can read CWC’s summary of the EEOC’s regulatory agenda here.