In December 2012, the EEOC adopted its Strategic Enforcement Plan for Fiscal Years 2013-2016 (the “SEP”), in which it highlighted the agency’s enforcement priorities for the coming three years.  Now two years into the plan, the EEOC continues to refine its strategic enforcement efforts and employers are responding to them. 

The EEOC’s SEP identified six priorities:

1. Eliminating Barriers in Recruitment and Hiring. 

2. Protecting Immigrant, Migrant and Other Vulnerable Workers. 

3. Addressing Emerging and Developing Issues. 

4. Enforcing Equal Pay Laws. 

5. Preserving Access to the Legal System. 

6. Preventing Harassment Through Systemic Enforcement and Targeted Outreach. 

In 2015, the EEOC continued its effort to pursue these stated priorities through systemic investigations and litigation arising from those investigations, despite a mixed record of success in the courts.  For example:

• Background Check Litigation: Despite some notable setbacks, such as the Fourth Circuit’s affirmance of summary judgment against the EEOC and scathing rebuke of its litigation conduct in EEOC v. Freeman, the EEOC has continued to pursue cases involving background checks in furtherance of its stated priority of eliminating barriers in hiring. 

• Pregnancy and Disability Discrimination: Following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. UPS, the EEOC reissued its pregnancy discrimination guidance, noting that the “Court explained that employer policies that are not intended to discriminate on the basis of pregnancy may still violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act if the policy imposes significant burdens on pregnant employees without a sufficiently strong justification.”  The EEOC also noted that the ADAAA does not require an impairment to “last a particular length of time to be considered substantially limiting,” thereby potentially including pregnancy.  The EEOC filed numerous ADA lawsuits in 2015, particularly focusing on reasonable accommodation issues.

• Equal Pay: Although the EEOC continues to assert its pronounced attention to alleged violations of the Equal Pay Act, it has not expended litigation resources commensurate with its statements.  The EEOC may well monitor developments in equal pay protection under state law (e.g., California’s Equal Pay Act, effective January 1, 2016) to assess the value of its own litigation efforts.

• Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity Discrimination: In an effort to address “emerging and developing issues,” the EEOC continues to include sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in its definition of discrimination based on sex.  In its August 2015 fact sheet, the EEOC identified numerous private sector lawsuits initiated by the EEOC or in which the EEOC filed amicus briefs, addressing LGBT-discrimination-related issues.

The EEOC appears poised in 2016 to continue pursuing the SEP aggressively through the use of systemic investigations.  Employers can expect the EEOC to seek to expand investigations of individual charges, particularly in substantive areas aligning with the SEP.  Although the United States Supreme Court ruled in Mach Mining, LLC v. EEOC (2015) that the EEOC’s pre-suit obligation to attempt to conciliate alleged unlawful workplace practices is subject to judicial review, the EEOC will continue to test the limits of judicial review of EEOC’s investigations and attempts to conciliate.  As the new year begins, employers must remain vigilant when challenging failures by the EEOC to conciliate or properly investigate charges and pay particular attention to charges alleging disability, pregnancy and sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination.