Tax Year 2024 EEOC Lawsuit Targets Emerging Issues and Underserved, Vulnerable Populations | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Agency files first cases to enforce Fairness Act for pregnant workers

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that it has filed 110 lawsuits alleging unlawful employment discrimination in fiscal year 2024, focusing on emerging issues and advancing the employment rights of disadvantaged and vulnerable workers.

“Litigation is just one tool in the EEOC’s toolbox to achieve its mission to prevent and remedy employment discrimination, but it is a tool we will continue to use strategically to maximize our impact,” said Karla Gilbride , general counsel of the EEOC. “I am proud of the role our litigation program has played over the past year and will play in the years to come in removing barriers to equal opportunity and making workplaces fairer, safer and more inclusive.”

The 110 lawsuits filed for the year ending September 30, 2024 include:

• 13 new systemic cases involving a pattern, practice or policy of discrimination
• 48 cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• More than 40 cases involving retaliation under various laws enforced by the EEOC
• 7 cases under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
• 5 cases under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)
• 5 cases of sexual harassment on behalf of teenage workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)
• Four Title VII cases alleging sex discrimination based on sexual orientation
• Three Title VII cases alleging sex discrimination based on gender identity

The agency focused on enforcing the PWFA as an emerging problem. At the forefront of enforcement of the new law, the Commission’s lawsuits allege that employers failed to provide reasonable accommodations to entitled employees and, as a result, often fired employees. The PWFA, in effect June 27, 2023, requires employers, in the absence of undue hardship, to provide workplace accommodations to employees who have a disability due to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition, including breastfeeding.

Systemic lawsuits continued to constitute a significant portion of the EEOC’s lawsuits; the agency filed 13 new systemic cases for a total of 45 pending cases, or 22% of the docket at the end of the fiscal year. The EEOC also used many non-systemic filings to address a wide range of agency priorities, such as harassment, equal pay, and access to the justice system.

The EEOC continued to vigorously enforce the ADA, filing 48 cases, or nearly half of all legal proceedings on behalf of employees with disabilities. In many of these cases, employers’ qualification standards or other inflexible policies were challenged, such as policies that required employees to work without medical restrictions without regard to possible accommodations, or policies that awarded points for absences related to an employee’s disability.

The agency’s various lawsuits were consistent with the agency’s Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) for fiscal years 2024-2028, which prioritizes addressing persistent forms of discrimination in the labor market, such as recruitment and hiring discrimination and systemic harassment , as well as emerging issues and vulnerable populations. . The agency also focused on geographic diversity, filing cases in parts of the country that were geographically removed from an EEOC office, such as South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

In addition to the 110 lawsuits, the EEOC also filed 18 lawsuits for failure to comply with mandatory federal reporting requirements (EEO-1 Component 1 demographic workforce reports), and one lawsuit for breach of a mediation agreement.

More information is available about the EEOC’s litigation program, including statistics on select enforcement cases filed and resolved in the federal district courts, a searchable collection of appeals, and a collection of annual reports from the Office of General Counsel.

The EEOC prevents and corrects unlawful discrimination in employment and promotes equal opportunity for all. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov.