Workplace FYI - Inside Washington & Beyond – What Employers Need to Know

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has approved its Strategic Enforcement Plan (“Plan”), which grew out of the EEOC's Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2012-2016.  In essence, the Plan affirms the Administration’s enforcement objectives for the next four years.  According to the Plan, the EEOC’s enforcement will focus on six key areas: eliminating barriers in recruitment and hiring; protecting immigrant, migrant and other vulnerable workers; addressing emerging and developing employment discrimination issues; enforcing equal pay laws; preserving access to the legal system and preventing harassment through systemic enforcement and targeted outreach.  The EEOC added equal pay as a priority enforcement area; the original Plan draft did not contain this goal.  This change signifies the Administration’s concerted efforts to continue and possibly intensify compensation enforcement actions. The Plan also directs the EEOC to pursue its efforts through an integrated approach throughout the private, public (state and local) and federal sectors.  

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In a recent testing case, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona precluded the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) from obtaining personally identifiable information from the employer when the subpoena request was based on a “blanket assertion” of discrimination and not supported by facts.  According to the court, allowing the EEOC to investigate the charging party’s generalized charge under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) would “invite the oft-cited ‘fishing expedition’ to become a full-blown harvest operation.”   The court recognized that the EEOC has broad powers to investigate allegations of Title VII and ADA violations but “if anyone could file a charge” which asserts that a policy discriminates on “any number of bases, the EEOC would have close to unlimited jurisdiction,” which would make investigations limitless in scope.

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The Supreme Court’s docket for the 2012-2013 term does not include many labor and employment cases, but there are some that do bear watching.  In addition, Fisher v. University of Texas, which presents the issue of the legality of the school’s affirmative action program in admission, will likely have a significant impact on labor and employment law.

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The Veterans Employment & Training Services (VETS) department of the Department of Labor announced that the filing deadline for VETS-100 and 100A reports in the 2012 cycle has been extended to October 31, 2012. 

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On June 25, 2012, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Arizona v. United States, on the constitutionality of Arizona’s immigration law.  In an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor joined, the Court struck down three provisions of the state law:

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