Worker Policy Watch

Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.

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The Department of Justice and the EEOC Issue “Warning” Against “Illegal” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices

This is yet another attempt by the administration to scare employers into giving up their perfectly legal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, all of which are designed to help ensure compliance with the civil rights laws.
 
Impact: As more employers become scared of the Administration's witch-hunts, they could scrap their best efforts to comply with the civil rights laws and make it harder for women, people of color, and other disadvantaged groups to fully and fairly compete for employment for which they are qualified.

Trump’s ban on transgender military service members is blocked by a federal judge

Ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes temporarily halts implementation of Trump’s ban against transgender individuals serving in the military.
 
Impact: Judge Reyes held the ban violates equal protection because it both discriminates based on transgender status and sex and because “it is soaked in animus.” The temporary halt will keep transgender service members from the denial of essential medical care, paused deployments, forced administrative leave, and other harms.

Thousands of federal workers are reinstated per the terms of a federal judge’s ruling that their terminations were illegal

The Trump administration has taken steps to reinstate 24,000 probationary federal workers at 18 federal agencies after U.S. District Judge James Bredar orders rehiring of the wrongly terminated federal workers, though most have been put on administrative leave.
 
Impact: Judge Bredar’s ruling is the second of two recent rulings that deemed the firings of probationary federal workers illegal. The majority of the 24,000 probationary workers reinstated have been put on administrative leave instead of rehired to full employment. This will continue to put those workers at risk if an appeals court rules against Judge Bredar’s reinstatement.

Trump Administration Mandates that Federal Agencies Detail the Costs of Negotiating Collective Bargaining Agreements with Federal Sector Unions

The administration continues its attack on the legally and duly certified federal sector unions who help make sure that public servants have good terms and conditions of work.
 
Impact: The information gained could be used, without providing appropriate context, to make the case that agencies should not bargain with federal sector unions any longer, which would be illegal.

EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas Sends A Letter to 20 Large Law Firms Demanding Information about their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices

The letter implies that Acting Chair Lucas believes that these firms' practices are discriminatory and violate the Civil Rights Act, though it fails to cite any evidence of discrimination. Former EEOC Commissioners and General Counsels have written a response, refuting Lucas' legal ability to ask for this information, and calling into question the justification for this letter in the first place.
 
Impact: This letter is part of this administration's coordinated attack on this country's civil rights laws. The practices they are trying to threaten employers to abandon are the best tools employers have to ensure that they are hiring, employing, and promoting people free of discrimination, whether it be implicit or intentional.

Trump Rescinds the “Good Jobs” Biden Executive Order that Required Union Neutrality from Federal Contractors and Gave a Preference in Awarding Contracts to Companies that used Registered Apprenticeship Programs

The Biden era EO rewarded companies that recognized when workers wanted to form a union and that trained their workforces while paying them good wages.
 
Impact: With the recsission of the Biden EO, companies that engage in union busting and pay low wages to their trainees will now have an advantage in securing federal contracts.

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