6 | EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2024 EDITION ©2024 Seyfarth Shaw LLP PART II: EEOC’s Enforcement Priorities According to the EEOC, the purpose of its Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) is to focus and coordinate the agency’s work over multiple years “to have a sustained impact in advancing equal employment opportunity.” As in years past, the SEP establishes the EEOC’s six substantive area priorities. Part II addresses each of these priorities. 1 Eliminating Barriers In Recruitment and Hiring 4Advancing Equal Pay for All Workers 2Protecting Vulnerable Workers and Persons from Underserved Communities 5Preserving Access to the Legal System 3Addressing Selected Emerging and Developing Issues 6Preventing and Remedying Systemic Harassment A EEOC’s FY 2023 Cornerstone Documents 1 Background The EEOC released its new Strategic Enforcement Plan for FY 2024-2028 on September 21, 2023.9 The term for the last SEP expired at the end of FY 2021, but it remained in effect until formally modified or withdrawn. In January 2023, the EEOC posted a draft of the new SEP for public comment. Following a lengthy interval since public comments were accepted, the final SEP now identifies the agency’s enforcement priorities for the next five years. The SEP indicates that the agency intends to aggressively pursue its enforcement agenda through Commissioner Charges, directed investigations, and litigation involving systemic harassment and discrimination.10 Along with the SEP, the EEOC also outlines its enforcement strategies through its Strategic Plan.11 Despite the similarity in their titles, these plan documents serve two distinct purposes. The SEP lays out the Commission’s specific priorities by highlighting certain areas of law or groups of workers that it will aim to address over the next four years. On the other hand, the Strategic Plan describes how the EEOC will achieve its strategic mission, including executing on the priorities contained in the SEP. In the words of the EEOC, the Strategic Plan “establishes a framework for achieving the EEOC’s mission to ‘prevent and remedy unlawful employment discrimination and advance equal employment opportunity for all.’” 12 The EEOC first unveiled its SEP in December 2012, stating that the plan “established substantive area priorities and set forth strategies to integrate all components of EEOC’s private, public, and federal sector enforcement to have a sustainable impact in advancing equal opportunity and freedom from 9 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Press Release: EEOC Releases Strategic Enforcement Plan (Sept. 21, 2023), https://www.eeoc. gov/newsroom/eeoc-releases-strategic-enforcement-plan. 10 See Christopher Kelleher, Rachel See, Christopher DeGroff, and Andrew Scroggins, Behind the EEOC Curtain: EEOC’s New Strategic Enforcement Plan Reveals Agency Priorities, Workplace Class Action Blog (Sept. 21, 2023), https://www.workplaceclassaction.com/2023/09/behind-the-eeoccurtain-eeocs-new-strategic-enforcement-plan-reveals-agency-priorities/#. 11 See Christopher DeGroff, James Nasiri, and Rachel See, EEOC Adopts 2022-2026 Strategic Plan With an Emphasis on Large-Scale Litigation, Improving Internal EEOC Processes, Workplace Class Action Blog (Aug. 23, 2023), https://www.workplaceclassaction.com/2023/08/eeoc-adopts2022-2026-strategic-plan-with-an-emphasis-on-large-scale-litigation-improving-internal-eeoc-processes/. 12 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Strategic Plan 2022-2026, https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc-strategic-plan-2022-2026.
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