Compliance Stuff

On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it had rescinded two documents relating to permissible affirmative action 1 under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act: (1) its regulatory guidelines 2 on “appropriate” affirmative action under the statute; and (2) section 607 of its Compliance Manual, which addressed those guidelines and the agency’s enforcement positions with respect to permissible affirmative action and affirmative action plans.  Both the guidelines and the related portion of the Compliance Manual explained that voluntary affirmative action plans were only permitted under federal equal employment opportunity laws when designed to remedy past or present discrimination or to address manifest imbalances in traditionally segregated job categories and carefully structured to avoid unlawfully disadvantaging other employees. The documents emphasized that to be lawful, a plan had to be temporary, flexible, and narrowly tailored, and ...

  Georgia   Senate Bill 384 , signed into law this year, establishes the State of Georgia as a Model Employer (the “GAME”) Program. 1  The GAME Program regulates labor practices of public offices related to the recruitment, hiring, advancement, and retention of qualified individuals with disabilities. 2  In creating the GAME Program, Georgia joins at least 19 other states that have enacted similar legislation. 3  While the GAME Program applies only to state agencies and not private employers, the Program is designed as a model for private sector employers in the state to follow in advancing the interests of qualified individuals with disabilities. The GAME Program: Core Elements and Compliance Requirements The GAME Program is designed to implement proactive hiring practices and annual evaluation procedures to promote the employment of qualified individuals with disabilities by Georgia’s state agencies. 4   The core features of the GAME Program are: Providin...