On March 7, 2018, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (covering Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee) held that Title VII prohibits discrimination against an employee because of his/her transgender status. EEOC v. R. G. & G. R. Harris Funeral Homes, Case No. 16-2424. Just weeks before, on February 26, 2018, the Second Circuit (covering New York, Connecticut and Vermont) held that Title VII also prohibits discrimination by an employer on the basis of sexual orientation. Zarda v. Altitude Express, 883 F.3d 100 (2d Cir. 2018). Our firm covered the lower court opinions in a prior blog (July 26, 2017).
While most of us are focused on Tax Day as the next major federal filing deadline, large employers and federal contractors should not lose sight of March 31 – the deadline for filing EEO-1 reports. For those who are unfamiliar, the EEO-1 report is a compliance survey mandated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under its regulations implementing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Through this report, the EEOC collects data on the race, ethnicity, and sex of private-sector employees, which is subdivided by job category. The EEOC will use this data to analyze job patterns of women and minorities in private industry in order to guide enforcement efforts. To this end, the information included in an employer’s EEO-1 report may be used in litigation against that employer.
