Project 2025 will make discrimination in the workplace much easier
It has been republished with the permission of the publication. It has been republished with the publication’s permission.
Only some
40 percent of disabled people are employed. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a key institution in ensuring that disabled workers are treated fairly. It enforces federal prohibitions against workplace discrimination. Viewed with distaste by many on the right since its founding through the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the EEOC obtained nearly $4 million in 2023 for disabled workers subjected to employment discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.Related:
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Discrimination plays a significant role, according to Stetson University College of Law professor Robyn Powell, in unemployment among disabled people, who experience it at a rate about double that of people without disabilities.
In response to substantiated complaints, the EEOC can sue companies for discrimination on the basis of disability–among other categories, including race, gender, and age–and may reach a consent decree, where companies agree to changes in policy and practice, sometimes with financial settlements to the affected workers.
“Consent decrees occur when there is a big employer where we’re seeing systematic examples of discrimination,” Powell said. “If we can open up employment opportunities by tackling discrimination, it helps everyone.”
The decrees are quicker, cheaper, and sometimes more effective than lawsuits in combating workplace prejudice. But they have a notable enemy in the Heritage Foundation’s pet project.
Jonathan Berry, who was the chief counsel of Trump’s 2016 transition team and held multiple jobs in his administration, writes in Project 2025 that EEOC “should disclaim power to enter into consent decrees that require employer actions” not already explicitly required by law. In 2012, an employee of the Heritage Foundation testified to Congress during the Obama Administration that federal agencies abuse consent decrees. This viewpoint is still evident in Project 2025. Shira Wakschlag is the senior director of legal advocacy for The Arc which helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She says that the EEOC, DOJ and other federal agencies have been crucial in protecting people’s rights. “Consent decrees are really critical in any kind of civil rights monitoring or systemic action.”
Anti-discrimination consent decrees tend to emphasize reform and accountability, with modest settlements compared to potential legal damages. In one representative case, a government contractor that did not provide accommodations to Deaf and hard-of-hearing employees, and that fired workers on medical leave, agreed to a $1 million settlement with updates to policies on medical leave, reasonable accommodation, and managerial training on the Americans with Disabilities Act, including five years’ monitoring for compliance.
Other types of Justice Department consent decrees also come under attack in Project 2025. Wakschlag said that this is very worrying for disability rights. Federal consent decrees have been used to combat the continued institutionalization of people with disabilities, which violates the ADA as well as the Supreme Court ruling Olmstead. Conservative attacks on consent orders are nothing new. Wakschlag notes that prior administrations have made efforts to limit, restrict, or eliminate consent decrees. If the EEOC was unable to issue consent decrees, federal antidiscrimination laws would be severely weakened. The agency can still offer technical assistance, such as instructions on how to use the ADA to protect employees and applicants who have visual disabilities, diabetes or epilepsy. But losing the ability to force companies to improve their treatment of disabled workers, and to monitor progress, would harm disabled workers.
