Jan 30, 2025 Story by: Editor
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — In a significant shake-up, President Donald Trump has dismissed two of the three commissioners from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), marking an unprecedented effort to reshape workplace civil rights enforcement. The move is part of his broader push to roll back certain diversity and gender rights policies.
Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, the two dismissed commissioners, confirmed their removals in statements on Tuesday, stating that they were informed late Monday night. Both officials expressed concerns about the legality of their firings, describing them as unprecedented actions that undermine the independence of the agency.
In a parallel decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) confirmed that Gynne A. Wilcox, a board member, and Jennifer Abruzzo, the agency’s General Counsel, were also fired on Monday night. Wilcox made history as the first Black woman to serve on the NLRB since its establishment in 1935, according to the agency’s website.
The EEOC was established under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a bipartisan, five-member commission tasked with protecting workers from discrimination based on race, gender, disability, and other protected characteristics. While the president appoints the commissioners and the Senate confirms them, their staggered terms are designed to maintain the agency’s independence across administrations.
The recent dismissals leave the EEOC with one Republican commissioner, Andrea Lucas, whom Trump recently appointed as acting chair, one Democratic commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, and three vacant seats that the president can now fill. Keith Sonderling, another Republican commissioner, departed last year upon the expiration of his term and was recently nominated for the position of deputy labor secretary.
The EEOC investigates workplace discrimination complaints, enforces penalties on employers found in violation of anti-discrimination laws, and develops guidelines on how such laws should be implemented. It also provides training and outreach to promote compliance.
Recent years have seen deep ideological divisions between the agency’s Democratic and Republican commissioners. Last year, Republican commissioners opposed new guidelines stating that misgendering transgender employees or denying them access to bathrooms aligning with their gender identity would constitute discrimination. They also voted against regulations requiring employers to provide time off and accommodations for abortions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
The firing of Burrows and Samuels appears to be a strategic move to shift the EEOC’s focus toward scrutinizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. The Trump administration has criticized such initiatives, arguing that they sometimes lead to discrimination against other groups in their efforts to support racial minorities, women, and marginalized communities.
New acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas recently issued a statement outlining her priorities, which include “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination; protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination; defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single‑sex spaces at work.”
Meanwhile, the three Democratic commissioners previously issued statements condemning Trump’s executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI practices in both federal and private workplaces, as well as protections for transgender workers. They emphasized that U.S. anti-discrimination laws remain intact despite these policy shifts and reaffirmed the EEOC’s responsibility to enforce them.
Burrows, who has been with the EEOC since 2015, stated on Tuesday that the removal of two Democratic commissioners before their terms ended “undermine the efforts of this independent agency to do the important work of protecting employees from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal employment laws.”
Samuels, appointed by Trump in 2020, echoed similar concerns, stating that her dismissal “violates the law, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency – one that is not controlled by a single Cabinet secretary but operates as a multi-member body whose varying views are baked into the Commission’s design.” Source: AP News
