Workplace Discrimination Complaints Are Expected to Drop. Here’s Why
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will no longer investigate complaints based on a legal concept that recognizes unintentional discrimination. Business owners face one less threat of falling afoul of federal regulations, though that might not be good news to all entrepreneurs. This week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) officially abandoned investigations of any discrimination complaints based on disparate impact liability, long viewed as an effective legal tool in those cases. What that means for employers is they no longer have to worry about being pursued by federal agencies for allegedly having policies or business practices that may unintentionally disadvantage certain groups of employees in hiring or promotion decisions. That’s the consequence of the EEOC now acting on an April executive order requiring all area, local, and district offices to cease pursuing worker complaints founded on disparate liabili...