The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s top priority for its 2024-2028 strategic enforcement plan will be targeting discrimination, bias and hate directed against religious minorities, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, racial or ethnic groups and LGBTQ+ individuals, the agency said Thursday.
The plan states that it is updating and refining the agency’s subject matter priorities “to reflect progress in achieving the EEOC’s vision of fair and inclusive workplaces with equal opportunity for all, while also recognizing the significant challenges that remain in making that vision a reality.
“The brutal killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Adam Toledo, Tyre Nichols, and so many other people of color remain a painful reminder of systemic racism,” it states, while the pandemic and its economic fallout “disproportionately impacted people of color and other vulnerable workers, including those with disabilities, exposing and magnifying inequalities in our society.”
Other priorities under the plan include expanding “the vulnerable and underserved” worker priority to include additional categories of workers; updating the emerging and developing issues priority to include protecting workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions; and recognizing employers’ increasing use of technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to target job advertisements, recruit applicants and make or assist in hiring and other employment decisions.
