One of 2013’s hallmarks in the labor and employment field is the aggressive stance taken by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws. The EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP), issued in December 2012, makes clear that the agency’s primary objective is to combat “systemic discrimination” and barriers to employment. In 2013, the EEOC filed 131 merits lawsuits (up from 122 in 2012), and 16 percent of those lawsuits were systemic suits. The EEOC’s General Counsel, P. David Lopez, has made clear that the EEOC will keep pushing the boundaries of discrimination law.
“We have an obligation to move beyond the ‘safe’ cases, and to identify and address less familiar discriminatory barriers emerging from changes in the economy, technology, and demographics,” Lopez recently said in an article.