The Equal Employment Alternative Fee (EEOC) has despatched letters to twenty prime legislation companies demanding details about their employment practices, an indication it plans to focus on their variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) packages.
The letter from Performing Chair Andrea Lucas, appointed by President Trump the day after his inauguration, mentioned companies’ efforts to diversify their workforce may violate employment legal guidelines.
“The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” Lucas mentioned in an announcement.
“No one is above the law — and certainly not the private bar.”
The letter is the primary main motion from the EEOC focusing on DEI packages, coming at a time the place Trump critics concern the administration will flip the company on its head. The fee was designed to analyze office discrimination claims, together with these primarily based on race, age and intercourse. A lot of these complaints have historically targeted on employment practices that exclude minorities.
It additionally comes because the Trump administration has singled out legislation companies for his or her previous work, utilizing government orders to strip a safety clearance from one lawyer and Covington & Burling whereas a broader order focusing on Perkins Coie stripped the agency’s clearances and included language that will largely bar its attorneys from federal buildings. Perkins Coie has sued over the manager order.
Whereas Covington & Burling was not among the many 20 companies contacted by the EEOC, Perkins Coie was, and the agency didn’t reply to request for remark.
Trump on his first full day in workplace signed an government order directing Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi to arrange a listing of personal sector corporations which can be amongst “the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners.”
Different actions taken by Lucas since her appointment embrace a directive to focus its gender discrimination work on “defend[ing] the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single-sex spaces at work.”
She additionally mentioned she would work to “protect American workers from anti-American bias” and accused some employers of getting “policies and practices preferring illegal aliens.”
