Workplace rights agency scraps anti-harassment guidance, citing Trump's orders
Source: msn/AP
Thu, January 22, 2026 at 5:00 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal agency in charge of enforcing workplace anti-discrimination laws on Thursday voted to rescind its own guidance on how to guard against harassment at work, marking another major shift in U.S. civil rights enforcement under President Donald Trump's second administration.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's newly-established Republican majority voted to rescind the 190-page document designed to serve as a resource for compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including how to protect transgender workers. Chair Andrea Lucas and recently-installed Commissioner Brittany Panuccio cited Trump's executive order issued last year — in which he decreed there are two immutable sexes, male and female — as one of the reasons for revoking the document.
Lucas emphasized at the beginning of Thursday's meeting that the commission's decision to rescind the guidance “will not leave a void where employers are free to harass wherever they see fit, leaving a trail of victims in their wake," citing several recent examples of settled harassment cases. And Panuccio said that private sector resources on anti-harassment law would fill in any gaps.
But critics argue that all workers will now be more vulnerable to harassment without the EEOC guidance. Kalpana Kotagal, the lone Democrat on the commission, likened it to “throwing out the baby with the bathwater.” She voted against getting rid of it.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/workplace-rights-agency-scraps-anti-220034726.html?guccounter=1