EEOC memo changes penalties for federal employers
n May 15, EEOC Acting Chair Andrea R. Lucas released a memorandum formally discontinuing the EEOC’s longstanding practice of imposing monetary sanctions on federal agency employers during the federal sector EEO complaint process. The EEOC has historically maintained that it holds the authority to levy these sanctions—including attorney fees and costs—against agencies that fail to comply with its orders.
In her memo, Acting Chair Lucas argued that this practice disregarded legal guidance from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which has advised that the EEOC lacks statutory authority to impose such penalties. Despite this, the Commission has consistently insisted that its statutory power to issue rules and regulations necessary to enforce the prohibition on employment discrimination includes the authority to impose sanctions in administrative hearings.
The elimination of monetary sanctions removes a critical enforcement mechanism, leaving federal workers with fewer protections and less recourse to hold the government accountable for discrimination. The memo also implies that this new stance could serve as a possible cost-cutting measure for the federal government, saying that using enforcement tools other than monetary sanctions “will further the EEOC’s mission of eliminating unlawful discrimination while responsibly stewarding the funds entrusted to the federal government by Congress.”
This move follows a broader pattern of rollbacks and changes to the EEOC’s enforcement capabilities that began under the Trump administration. These efforts have steadily eroded the EEOC’s ability to protect workers, particularly workers of color and other historically marginalized groups, by limiting the tools the Commission can use to deter discriminatory practices in the federal workforce.
https://www.epi.org/policywatch/eeoc-memo-changes-penalties-for-federal-employers/
Assholes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!