WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday took steps to limit the ability of federal employees to pursue administrative cases alleging workplace discrimination, the latest shift in anti-discrimination enforcement under President Donald Trump.
The Republican-controlled EEOC voted 2-1 to approve a proposed rule, opens new tab that would reserve hearings before administrative judges for a limited set of cases, end the requirement that cases go through mediation and eliminate the ability of federal workers to file class action-style complaints.
The commission enforces laws prohibiting workplace discrimination against private-sector and federal employees. Government workers must first file internal complaints with the agencies that employ them before seeking relief at the EEOC or filing lawsuits in federal court.
The new proposal would significantly curtail the administrative option, most notably by stripping federal workers of the current automatic right to request a hearing before an EEOC administrative judge. Instead, hearings would be held only to resolve “material factual disputes” or novel issues.
The commission in the proposal said the existing process has often resulted in delay and unnecessary formality and complexity, undermining its purpose as cases often languish for months or years. The rule would generally require the commission to complete investigations into workers’ complaints within 135 days of being filed.
The proposal must be formally published in the Federal Register, which will kick off a 30-day public comment period.
EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, a Trump appointee, in a statement said the internal process is supposed to provide a swift, informal path to resolution but was deeply broken.
“These proposed changes are about fixing what doesn’t work and making the process faster, fairer, and more straightforward,” she said.
Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, the lone Democrat on the EEOC, dissented on Wednesday, saying in a statement that the changes would weaken equal opportunity and access to justice for federal employees.
“The federal sector process is already challenging. This proposal would make it even harder for workers and more burdensome for federal agencies and courts,” Kotagal said in the statement.
The administrative route is typically cheaper and can be friendlier for litigants who represent themselves without attorneys, and limiting it will likely discourage some workers from filing complaints at all, according to Michael Fallings, a partner at Tully Rinckey who represents federal workers.
“Really the intent is to reduce the amount of complaints that need to be investigated, and the effect will be that complaints won’t be investigated as extensively,” he said.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 800,000 federal workers, filed a lawsuit last month alleging that the EEOC unlawfully ceased processing class-action complaints by federal workers sometime last year. That has included barring administrative judges from holding hearings, deciding motions, ordering discovery or issuing decisions, according to the lawsuit.
On Wednesday, the union said the proposed rule cuts against the EEOC’s legal responsibility to keep federal workplaces free from discrimination.
“The changes being proposed by the EEOC will result in discrimination cases taking longer to resolve at greater cost to taxpayers, which is a disservice both to federal employees and the American public,” said Kendrick Roberson, the union’s national vice president.
