The Leadership Conference Condemns EEOC Chair Lucas’ Proposed Rule Eliminating Crucial Race and Gender Data

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected] 

WASHINGTON — Deborah J. Vagins, senior vice president for advocacy and programs for The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement:

“Since the beginning of her leadership, EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas has weaponized the EEOC against vulnerable workers. And by approving a proposed rule today, along with Commissioner Brittany Panuccio, to rescind demographic employment data collections, the EEOC’s majority has abandoned its longstanding mission of independent civil rights enforcement. The EEOC’s EEO-1 and related data collections, which collect race, ethnicity, and gender demographic information from employers, have been in place through Democratic and Republican administrations alike since the 1960s. The collections have been used by the agency to better inform their investigations for employment discrimination, to focus the agency’s limited resources on occupations where data suggests disparities, to help employers examine their own employment practices, and to provide researchers, press, and the public with important aggregate data to understand diversity within our workforces.

“If you cannot measure problems, you cannot address them, which is exactly why this EEOC is proposing to stop demographic data collections. Discrimination does not go away when you don’t assess it; it just makes it harder to prove. This administration has declared its war on integrated workforces and equal opportunity. The EEOC has become a mouthpiece for Trump’s attacks on having a workforce reflective of America. The EEOC has signaled its intent to focus resources and solicit charges from only white men, while rescinding data collection and wiping data from its website that would show any potential disparities for women and workers of color. The Leadership Conference strongly opposes the notice of proposed rulemaking to take down these important data collections and the weakening of our progress. We will be working with the civil rights community to defend the tools needed to promote equity and fairness in the workplace.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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