On April 29, 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) finalize and released its Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace. This guidance describes the EEOC’s enforcement of federal laws intended to protect employees from workplace harassment. The updated EEOC guidance includes the following changes, among others:
- Gender identity and sexual orientation are added as categories of protected characteristics.
- The definition of sex-based harassment now includes pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
- The EEOC’s prohibition against harassment based on race, national origin, religion, age, and disability also includes harassment based on stereotypes of individuals belonging to those groups.
- Conduct within a virtual work environment may contribute to a hostile work environment.
- Employers are not required to accommodate an employee’s religious expression that creates or “reasonably threatens to create” a hostile work environment.
- The new guidance includes a list of features that an employer’s anti-harassment policy should have in place in order to be effective.
For more detailed information about the new EEOC guidance, see LCW’s Special Bulletin on this issue.
