On November 9th, the National Women’s Law Center submitted comments in opposition to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s notice of proposed rulemaking, “Update of Commission’s Conciliation Procedures” urging the agency to withdraw the rule.

NWLC submitted these comments after the agency refused to extend the period for comments despite a coalition letter urging the extension from 39 organizations. EEOC’s decision to pursue rulemaking in the middle of a national pandemic, and to provide only 30 days for public comment, instead of the customary 60 days, casts doubt on the integrity of the administrative process and the legality of the Proposed Rule.

The Proposed Rule seeks to make conciliation more attractive to employers in a manner that would impose significant and time-consuming requirements on EEOC, and further stack the deck against working people seeking justice in the face of employment discrimination. The Proposed Rule will make it harder for workers who, for example, are fired for being transgender, or sexually harassed at work, or denied a promotion because they are Black, or retaliated against for asking for an accommodation because of a disability to seek and obtain redress for unlawful discrimination from EEOC.