The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced on Wednesday that it has filed suit against 15 employers in 11 states and in a variety of industries for failing to file their EEO-1 Reports for 2021 and 2022.

According to Bloomberg Law, the EEOC had not sued an employer based solely on a failure to file an EEO-1 report since 2008.

EEO-1 basics

EEO-1 Reports include the number of employees at a given establishment by race, ethnicity, and sex, and by job group, for a "snapshot" period during the relevant year. This is known as "Component 1" data. The following employers must file the annual reports:

• Any private sector employer with 100 or more employees that is covered by Title VII.
• Any private sector employer that is covered by Title VII, even if it has fewer than 100 employees, if it has a joint employer relationship with another entity, and together the entities have 100 employees or more. (More details on this category are in the EEOC's Instruction Booklet on page 9.)
• Any federal contractor with 50 or more employees that is a prime contractor or first-tier subcontractor with $50,000 or more in federal contracts and meets certain other criteria. (The full criteria are in the Instruction Booklet on page 10.) 

Back to those lawsuits

In the EEOC announcement of the lawsuits, General Counsel Karla Gilbride was quoted as saying,

Not only did Congress authorize the EEOC to collect this data, [but] Congress also authorized the agency to go to court to obtain compliance when employers ignore their obligation to provide the required information.”

The lawsuits appear to be more or less identical. They are asking only for the courts to order the employers to submit their (allegedly) past-due reports and to submit their reports in a timely manner in the future, to award the EEOC its court costs, and to award "such further relief as the Court deems necessary and proper in the public interest." Here is one of the lawsuits, which will give you the general idea. If a court order is issued and the employers continue to fail to file (allegedly), they could be held in contempt and be subject to more severe sanctions.

2023 deadline is imminent!!!

The deadline for employers to submit Component 1 data for 2023 is 11 p.m. Eastern this Tuesday, June 4. If you miss that deadline, there is a grace period that ends at 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, July 9. After that, no mercy. The EEOC will not accept any submissions after the grace period ends.

(Gee, do ya think maybe that is why these employers never submitted their EEO-1 Reports? They missed the grace period, and so they couldn't submit their reports even if they wanted to?)

But stay cool

If you haven't filed your 2023 EEO-1s yet, you can start at this web page, which has links to the Instruction Booklet, FAQs, and other helpful information, as well as a "Get Started" button that allows you to begin the filing process. (If you haven't already done so, you will have to create a user name and password.)

Who got sued?

Here is a list of the lawsuits that have been filed. All were filed in federal court, and unless otherwise indicated, they were filed this past Tuesday. (The links may not work unless you have a Bloomberg subscription.)

•  EEOC v. Autosales, Inc., Northern District of Ohio (Akron)
•   EEOC v. Boomerang Tube, LLC, Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis)
•   EEOC v. Commodore Constr. Corp., Southern District of New York (White Plains)
•   EEOC v. E. Janitorial Services, District of New Jersey (Trenton)
•   EEOC v. Eissmann Auto. N. Am., Inc., Northern District of Alabama (Middle District)
•   EEOC v. Erickson Framing Operations LLC, District of Arizona (Phoenix)
•   EEOC v. Harrison Poultry, Northern District of Georgia (Gainesville)
•   EEOC v. Leonard’s Express, Western District of Wisconsin (Madison)
•   EEOC v. Lone Star Overnight, LLC, Eastern District of Texas (Sherman)
•   EEOC v. Metro. Foods, Inc., District of New Jersey (Newark), filed 5/23
•   EEOC v. Nailor Industries of Texas, Inc., Southern District of Texas (Houston), filed 5/24
•   EEOC v. Performance Hospitality Mgmt., LLC, Southern District of Florida (Ft. Lauderdale)
•   EEOC v. Primary AIM, LLC, Southern District of Ohio (Columbus)
•   EEOC v. Taylor Morrison, Inc., District of Arizona (Phoenix), filed 5/24
•   EEOC v. Transdev Services, Inc., Eastern District of North Carolina (Raleigh)

File those EEO-1s by Tuesday if possible, and by July 9 if not. You got this!