A federal appeals court has ordered the Labor Department to release EEO-1 Type 2 consolidated data from the years 2016 to 2020 submitted by contractors that objected to a 2022 Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Center for Investigative Reporting. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected DOL’s argument that headcount and organizational structure data could indirectly reveal details about contractors’ services or profits and therefore were commercial information protected from FOIA disclosure. The case is Center for Investigative Reporting v. U.S. Department of Labor.
Absent review by the full Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court, DOL will now prepare to release the requested Type 2 data from contractors that had objected to disclosure. In 2023, DOL disclosed data submitted by contractors that did not object.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, can read more here.