The nation's workplace civil rights agency withdrew its main roadmap for handling harassment cases on Thursday, leaving employers without detailed federal guidance. In a 2-1 vote, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission scrapped its 2024 harassment guidance document, nearly 200 pages that outlined how existing antidiscrimination laws apply to conduct based on race, sex, religion, age, disability, and other protected traits. The commission, which now has a Republican majority, bypassed the usual public comment period. Chair Andrea Lucas and Commissioner Brittany Panuccio voted to rescind; Democratic Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal dissented, NPR reports.
Much of the political fight centered on how the guidance treated gender identity and sexual orientation. The Biden-era document, citing the Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, had said conduct such as repeatedly refusing to use a worker's chosen name or pronouns, or barring access to bathrooms aligned with gender identity, could be illegal harassment. Lucas has argued Bostock covers decisions like hiring and firing, not broader workplace conditions, writing in her 2024 dissent that recognizing "biological sex" and using corresponding pronouns "even repeatedly" should not be deemed harassment.
A federal judge in Texas had already voided the sections on LGBTQ protections last year, per NPR, and the commission had grayed out that material online before Thursday's wider repeal. Lucas said the move does not change underlying law and insisted the agency will continue to enforce harassment protections. Federal statutes remain in place, and workers must still go to the EEOC before suing in court. But the commission no longer has comprehensive harassment guidance in effect, a gap that former Chair Charlotte Burrows called "shocking," especially given the document drew on about 38,000 public comments and experiences from #MeToo and the pandemic era.
"At the height of the #MeToo movement, millions bravely came forward to share their stories, exposing harassment as an abuse of power," Kotagal said, per the AP. "The EEOC rose to the occasion by promulgating the guidance being rescinded today, which strives to make workplaces safer for everyone." Employment lawyers say the guidance has served as a practical training and compliance tool, particularly for smaller employers; one, Craig Leen, urged the commission to quickly issue new guidance on areas of long-settled consensus and openly label disputed areas as subject to political shifts.
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