 The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has launched its new National Enforcement Plan (NEP) for fiscal years 2025–2029, signaling a major shift in federal workplace antidiscrimination policy. Moving away from past strategies, the agency is decreasing its focus on "disparate impact" which involves unintentional discrimination caused by neutral company policies. Instead, the EEOC is directing its resources toward tackling intentional discrimination. Under this new direction, the agency will closely examine corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, specifically targeting practices like hiring quotas, diverse interview panels, and mandatory diversity statements.
The plan also emphasizes the agency should actively target businesses that favor temporary visa holders over qualified domestic applicants, viewing such practices as an ‘anti-American’ form of national origin discrimination. At the same time, the agency is adjusting its legal strategies to raise the bar for employers trying to deny religious accommodations in the workplace. Under the updated standards, companies must now prove that accommodating an employee's faith would result in substantial increased costs or structural disruptions to their business operations. Teukolsky Law condemns the EEOC’s weakening of federal protections for employees. Fortunately, California law is far more protective of workers than federal law, and workers in our state are still protected by California’s robust anti-discrimination statutes. Lauren Teukolsky has represented workers for over two decades and her commentary on the latest developments in employment law is regularly featured by major publications such as Bloomberg Law, Law360, The Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times. If you would like to speak with her about an employment matter, click here.
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 The Department of Labor (DOL) recently proposed several new changes to wage and hour laws. The DOL published a proposed rule to restructure wage calculations for H1-B immigrant workers last month, raising their minimum wage and making it more costly for employers to sponsor entry-level workers.
In February, the DOL proposed a rule to rescind the 2024 Biden-era guidance on the classification of independent contractors. The rules return to the 2021-Trump-era rule, the “economic dependence” test, and lower the bar for workers to be classified as independent contractors. The test examines the opportunity for workers to earn profits or incur losses based on their initiative and the degree of control a worker exercises over their work. The DOL has also proposed rules that make it more difficult for employees to prove joint employer liability. The new rule narrowly defines a joint employer as any business which has “substantial direct and immediate control” over another employer’s workers. Employers that meet the joint employer criteria are potentially liable for unfair labor practices committed by the other companies and they have a duty to negotiate with a union representing the jointly employed workers. Under this narrow definition, workers will have a harder time proving that another company is jointly liable for federal bargaining obligations or for unfair labor practices. Lauren Teukolsky has represented workers for over two decades and her commentary on the latest developments in employment law is regularly featured by major publications such as Bloomberg Law, Law360, Law.com, and the Los Angeles Times. If you have a wage-and-hour issue and would like to speak with her, click here.  Last month, the California State Assembly and Senate churned through hundreds of bills in order to meet the “house of origin deadline” – the deadline by which all bills must have passed through their chamber of origin just to have a chance of being signed into law later this year. The bills that passed vary greatly, from bills focused on gun control to bills aimed at enhancing abortion protections. Teukolsky Law would like to take a moment to highlight some of the passed bills that will significantly benefit California’s workers, should they be signed into law later this year.
Senate Bill 1162 SB 1162, the Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Act, aims to improve workplace pay transparency and close the gender and race wage gap by requiring employers with 100 or more employees to publicly report their pay data broken down by race, ethnicity, and sex for both direct employees and employees hired through a third-party staffing agency. The bill would also require employers to provide a salary range on all job postings and promotional opportunities available to all current employees. SB 1162 passed the Senate on a 29-9 vote. Assembly Bill 1949 AB 1949 would amend the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to require employers to grant their employees at least 5 days of unpaid bereavement leave, or time off for the death or funeral of a family member. AB 1949 passed the Assembly on a 59-9 bipartisan vote. Senate Bill 836 SB 836 would reinstate a provision that protects a person’s immigration status from disclosure in public court proceedings. This protection ended at the beginning of 2022 and stopped employers from using a worker’s immigration status to deter the worker from bringing legal claims against the employer. SB 836 passed the Senate on a 28-0 vote. All three of the above bills are sponsored by the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) a statewide organization that works to protect and expand the legal rights of workers through litigation, education, and advocacy. For a complete list of all bills being tracked by CELA, click here. |
AuthorLauren Teukolsky is the founder and owner of Teukolsky Law, A Professional Corporation. Archives
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Teukolsky Law, A Professional Corporation, represents clients throughout California. Ms. Teukolsky is admitted to practice in the State of California, as well as the United States Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Northern District of California and Central District of California. Disclaimer.
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Copyright © 2017