On March 19, 2025 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued two updates: a list of eleven questions and answers on a website titled “What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work;” and a one-page information sheet co-issued with the Department of Justice called “What To Do If You Experience Discrimination Related to DEI at Work.”
These documents align with the stated goals and other actions of this administration to eliminate DEI, including Executive Orders such as Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, and Removing Discrimination and Discriminatory Equity Ideology from the Foreign Service. The EEOC guidance acknowledges that DEI is a broad term that is not defined in the statute (or otherwise).
Here are some takeaways from these new publications:
- Anyone can make a claim of discrimination; the person complaining need not be a member of an underrepresented group.
- An employer’s policy or practice may be unlawful under Title VII “if it involves an employer or other covered entity taking an employment action motivated—in whole or in part—by race, sex, or another protected characteristic.”
- Workers only need to show “some harm” affecting the terms and conditions of their employment to allege a claim of discrimination. Treating employees differently on the basis of a protected category relating to access to mentoring, training, and internships would violate the prohibition against disparate treatment.
- It violates Title VII to limit or segregate access to employee-sponsored activities and facilities based on protected categories. The guidance specifically identifies as unlawful segregation the limitation of membership in employee affinity groups based on protected categories.
- A protected category cannot be a “deciding factor” for an employment action that includes other permissible factors.
- A business interest in diversity does not justify taking employment actions based on a protected characteristic.
- DEI training could create a hostile work environment if “the training was discriminatory in content, application, or context.”
While some of these examples have not been used by the EEOC in prior guidance, they are based on the plain language of existing law, including Title VII and related case law, and citations are provided in the guidance.
The guidance is located here.
The one-page resource is here.