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On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it had rescinded two documents relating to permissible affirmative action 1 under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act: (1) its regulatory guidelines 2 on “appropriate”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 ...

  On Wednesday, February 19, 2025, Acting Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) Chair Andrea R. Lucas   announced   the EEOC plans to target employers that “illegally prefer non-American workers,” as well as “staffing agencies and other agents that unlawfully comply with client companies’ illegal preferences against American workers” through increased enforcement of Title VII’s national origin protections. This latest statement expounds u pon the enforcement priorities Lucas laid out in her  January 21, 2025, statement , which included “protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination.” This week, Lucas explained that the EEOC intends to partner with other federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Labor to achieve “enhanced investigation and enforcement” of Title VII protections for American employees. Notably, the announcement also indicates that the EEOC’...