Punching In: Chavez-DeRemer Faces First Test, EEOC Shifts Gears

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

LCD’s Coalition| EEOC Dropping Cases

Rebecca Rainey: President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Labor Department, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, gets her day on Capitol Hill this week.

The former Oregon Republican congresswoman will face questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Wednesday about her fitness to serve as Secretary of Labor.

Chavez-DeRemer was an unexpected choice for the position given her voting record and vocal support of pro-union policies.

Her sponsorship of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act cost her the vote of at least one Republican — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. It also won Chavez-DeRemer the backing of the North America’s Building Trades Unions and of course the Teamsters union, the latter of which was key in pushing Trump to nominate her.

“With the skilled trades at the forefront of America’s economic and infrastructure expansion, we need a leader who will collaborate with labor and industry to advance policies that empower workers and strengthen our workforce,” NABTU President Sean McGarvey said.

But her pro-labor record hasn’t fully scared away the business community, which despite a tepid initial reaction to the nominee, has since issued multiple endorsements. That is partially due to her pairing with Keith Sonderling, a former Republican commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a favorite of the business community, who has been tapped to serve as the No. 2 at DOL.

“Rep. Chavez-DeRemer and Commissioner Sonderling can now establish a balanced approach to workforce policies that will benefit both job creators and employees,” the National Retail Federation said in a statement endorsing the nominees.

If confirmed, Chavez-DeRemer will take over the agency as it attempts to comply with a fast-moving transformation of the federal government. The Labor Secretary will have a key role in implementing Trump’s rapid-fire executive orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion, oversight of federal contractors’ anti-discrimination obligations, and reducing the federal workforce, among others at the DOL. The agency is also facing a lawsuit from multiple unions challenging the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to access the agency’s computer systems.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer faces her first confirmation hearing this week

Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Rebecca Klar: EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas can’t yet hold a vote to revoke the commission’s 2024 harassment guidance that incorporates gender identity protections. But that’s not stopping the agency from pulling back support in ongoing cases defending the document, in what looks like a sign of what’s to come at the civil rights agency.

Lucas recently said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “must rescind the guidance,” and took other action including removing non-binary gender markers from bias charge intakes, in line with a Trump executive order proclaiming the reconnition of only “two sexes.” But the EEOC lacks a quorum to hold a vote on the guidance after the president fired two Democratic commissioners.

The EEOC has already requested a stay on Jan. 30 in a case it filed alleging a pig farm discriminated against a worker who is transgender by “deadnaming” her and criticizing her for pursuing gender-affirming care.

In a separate case, an attorney for the EEOC submitted a letter on Jan. 31 to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit pulling their request to participate in oral arguments on behalf of a nursing assistant at a rehabilitation center who alleged they were subject to a hostile work environment based on their race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender non-conformity.

In the letter, the EEOC attorney said they have “become unavailable to participate in oral argument.”

Justice Department attorneys representing the EEOC also successfully petitioned the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on Jan. 23 to cancel oral arguments in a case brought by Republican-led states challenging the harassment guidance.

As soon as the White House nominates and the Senate confirms one more Republican commissioner, the path is cleared for them to modify the guidance finalized in April that protects workers against misgendering and affirms their ability to use bathrooms at work that align with their gender identity.

The EEOC has already issued a separate directive calling for charges filed by transgender workers to be “elevated for review.”

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.