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Lawmakers Seek to Block New EEO-1 Reporting Form

7/26/17

By: Paul H. Derrick

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee has dealt a potentially crippling blow to the future of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s revised Form EEO-1. Lawmakers inserted a rider into the government’s annual funding measure that would prohibit the EEOC from spending any of the agency’s budget allotment on its plan to collect pay data from employers on the new form.

Unveiled in early 2016, the revised EEO-1 form would require private employers, including federal contractors, with 100 or more workers to compile and disclose a variety of payroll data with each filing. The data would include information about rates of pay, hours worked, and more. Employers with fewer than 100 workers would continue their current EEO-1 reporting practices.

In addition to blocking efforts to collect pay data, the appropriations bill also directs the EEOC to make reducing the backlog of pending discrimination charges a top priority. According to the Committee’s report, lawmakers want the agency to focus on resolving complaints that employees actually filed, rather than trying to use pay data to decide whether to pursue litigation over things about which “no complaint was filed by an actual/former employee or applicant” in the first place.

Collection of data for the new EEO-1 form was, and technically still is, scheduled to get underway beginning with the period from October 1 through December 31, 2017. The first deadline for filing the new reports is March 31, 2018. If the appropriations bill ultimately becomes law, however, the revised Form EEO-1 almost certainly will not be implemented in the upcoming fiscal year.

We will continue to keep you apprised of developments in this area as they occur. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Paul Derrick at pderrick@fmglaw.com.