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The Trump Administration Is Leaving Federal Workers Vulnerable to Discrimination

Fatima Goss Graves, the president and chief executive officer of the National Women’s Law Center, echoed some of these sentiments, and she underscored the widespread implications of this overhaul.

“People devote so much of their lives to public service because they want to help others,” she said. “Eliminating these offices just makes it harder both for workers who are there to complain about discrimination, and for those who do business with these agencies to do the same.”

… The Federal Trade Commission has downsized its equal employment opportunity office from six employees to three; NASA’s EEO office also has faced cuts, and most of its information on how to pursue discrimination complaints has been scrubbed from the agency’s website, according to February reporting from The Washington Post. These moves — made to bring agencies in line with Trump’s executive orders seeking to purge the federal government of diversity initiatives and anything that could be linked to them — reveal how regressive the administration’s political vision is, Goss Graves argued

… The week that he returned to the White House, Trump rescinded President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246, signed in 1965. It not only prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin for organizations receiving federal contracting — it also required that federal contractors work proactively toward creating equal opportunity for marginalized groups at their firms. “One of our oldest ideas — going back to President Johnson — is that since contractors have the privilege of making money off the federal government, the very least they can do is not discriminate,” Goss Graves explained.

… Still, Goss Graves wants these workers to understand that, even though the administration is making it far more challenging to stay on the job and not experience discrimination, they do have options. While the administration has sought to end the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — in an unprecedented move, Trump in January dismissed two Democratic commissioners of the agency that upholds workplace civil rights laws — the EEOC remains an avenue. Indeed, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which among other things embraces the notion that people ought to be able to work safely and with dignity, still protects people, Goss Graves pointed out. The same goes for other statutes that guarantee protections based on age and disability.