NEW YORK (AP) — A labor union and two female prison employees filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing a U.S. civil rights agency of unlawfully halting their sexual harassment case as part of wider order to indefinitely suspend proceedings in all federal-sector class claims. The lawsuit claims that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ordered an indefinite suspension of federal-sector class complaints pending before the agency’s administrative judges, who handle discrimination complaints from federal workers in a process that is different than for private sector workers. The two women, who are correctional officers at a Louisiana federal prison, have a pending certified class complaint against the Federal Bureau of Prisons, claiming that prison management failed to prevent and correct widespread sexual harassment by inmates against female workers, including rape threats, unwanted touching and nudity. The women, Deanna Chelette and Alexzandria Boyd, were joined in their lawsuit by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers.
It is not clear why the EEOC gave the suspension directive, which the agency had not publicly disclosed, or how many other cases are affected. The EEOC referred all questions to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment. Under President Donald Trump, the EEOC has drastically overhauled its civil rights enforcement priorities, including prioritizing cases aimed at stamping out diversity and inclusion policies, dropping cases on behalf of transgender workers and abandoning longstanding tools for investigating systemic discrimination. The changes have prompted several lawsuits against EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, who says she is pursuing an “even-handed” and “colorblind” vision of workplace civil rights.
