Employers may need to align their compliance priorities with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) recently approved enforcement initiatives. As XpertHR has previously reported, the EEOC recently updated its Strategic Enforcement Plan for Fiscal Years 2012-2016 (SEP) and asked for input from stakeholders. On December 18, 2012, the EEOC announced it had approved the SEP by a 3-1 vote.
The SEP details the EEOC's plans to focus enforcement efforts on national priorities, which include:
-
Barriers in recruitment and hiring;
-
Protection of vulnerable workers;
-
Enforcement of equal pay laws; and
-
Harassment prevention.
Employers may face increased scrutiny regarding the implementation and enforcement of workplace policies and procedures that touch on these enforcement priorities, such as those addressing use of criminal history information.
XpertHR offers tools to minimize potential liability with respect to outside investigations, including responding to an EEOC charge. Specifically, the Employer Liability Concerns in Employee Management section of XpertHR's Employment Law Manual discusses various compliance strategies.
