By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Christopher J. DeGroff, Matthew J. Gagnon, and Ala Salameh Seyfarth Synopsis: On November 19, 2019, the EEOC released its inaugural “Agency Financial Report” (“AFR”)  for Fiscal Year 2019 (here). Substantively, the AFR is a data compilation regarding the EEOC’s financial health, initiatives, and guiding principles. The AFR is an important guide to how the EEOC spent its budget in FY 2019, and is therefore a useful…

By: Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Christopher J. DeGroff, Matthew J. Gagnon, and Ala Salameh Seyfarth Synopsis: The Trump Administration has succeeded in replacing several open  positions within the upper echelons of the EEOC. Employers are anxiously looking for any sign as to how this slate of leadership will put its stamp on the agency’s mission and, more importantly, which employers and business practices the agency will most heavily target. But even though…

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex W. Karasik Seyfarth Synopsis: In the latest battle of the multi-year showdown between the State of Texas and the EEOC – whereby Texas asserted that the EEOC’s 2012 “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII” (“Guidance”) interfered with its authority to limit the hiring of felons – the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed most  parts of…

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex W. Karasik Seyfarth Synopsis:  After a federal magistrate judge in California ordered the EEOC to provide written discovery responses relative to the substance its pre-suit investigation of a sex discrimination charge in EEOC v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., No. 17-CV-5382, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129046 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 1, 2019), the EEOC objected to the order and sought review; thereafter, the district judge granted EEOC’s motion for…

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex W. Karasik Seyfarth Synopsis:  A federal district court in Arkansas recently denied an employer’s motion for summary judgment on two EEOC-initiated ADA claims – in EEOC v. Crain Automotive Holdings LLC, No. 4:17-CV-627, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62513 (E.D. Ark. Apr. 11, 2019) –  for failure to provide a reasonable accommodation and discharge based on disability, following a supervisor’s comments to an employee that “it was not working…

By: Michael Jacobsen, Christopher DeGroff, and Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. Seyfarth Synopsis:  On April 10, 2019, the EEOC released its comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for Fiscal Year 2018.  The release arrived a few months later than usual – likely due to the recent government shutdown – but still packed a punch in several respects, including to the back-drop on retaliation and sex discrimination charges in the midst of the #MeToo movement, the number…