Workers' rights caught in collision of Trump's priorities

• The civil rights of Americans are at stake, according to advocates for workers and former EEOC officials.
• Staff are "in revolt" over concerns that fulfilling Trump's anti-DEI and anti-transgender orders would break the law, as the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

The big picture: The situation is a big change from the fairly hands-off way Trump treated the agency in his first term.

• In fact, it was a Trump Supreme Court appointee, Neil Gorsuch, who authored the landmark Bostock opinion, which found that discrimination against workers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the law that the EEOC enforces.

Where it stands: The agency is now treating gender identity cases differently, which will likely slow the process for those facing harassment at work.

• Any cases that "implicate" Trump's executive order on "Gender Ideology Extremism" are getting reviewed at EEOC headquarters, an agency spokesman told Axios in an email.
• Typically, cases are handled by local offices, and workers who bring charges to the EEOC are issued a "right to sue" letter to file a lawsuit in federal court.
• The agency said it will continue to issue these letters, but didn't offer more about what the headquarter review process would entail.
• The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the agency's new approach.

Also unclear: What happens to the cases brought by the agency that are already underway?

• These include one, filed on behalf of a housekeeper at a Holiday Inn Express in New York, who was fired after complaining about harassment from a supervisor who referred to them as "it," misgendered them, and made multiple offensive derogatory comments.
• Such harassment is a violation of the way the agency has interpreted the Supreme Court ruling, but that interpretation is opposed by EEOC acting chair Andrea Lucas.
• "Sex is binary (male and female) and immutable," Lucas, an outspoken DEI opponent, said in a statement last week about Trump's executive order.
• "It is not harassment to acknowledge these truths — or to use language like pronouns that flow from these realities, even repeatedly."

What they're saying: "The EEOC's mission is to prevent and remedy all forms of unlawful discrimination in the workplace," said Karla Gilbride, former general counsel at the agency, who was recently fired by Trump.

• "I'm concerned about the effect of President Trump's executive order on gender, and the way it's being implemented, is having on the agency's ability to serve that mission," Gilbride told Axios.

Context: Trump also fired two Democratic EEOC commissioners, including Jocelyn Samuels, who he placed in that role during his first administration. "I was shocked it happened to me," she told NPR this week.

• While it's not unusual for a new administration to replace an agency's general counsel, terminating commissioners with defined terms is highly unusual.
• The firings leave the agency without the quorum it needs to do much of its work, and the moves have been criticized as part of a broader attack on the independence of federal agencies.

What's next: Once new commissioners are in place, Lucas has said she'd like to update the guidelines around enforcing sex-based discrimination and roll back what she's called "the Biden administration's gender identity agenda."

• It's likely those changes will face court challenges.

The bottom line: The agency tasked with protecting the rights of transgender workers may no longer be focused on fulfilling that mission.