By Daniel Wiessner
July 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. agency that enforces laws banning workplace discrimination moved on Tuesday to scrap a requirement that employers annually submit data on the race and sex of their workers, which since its adoption in the 1960s has been a cornerstone of civil rights enforcement.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, led by Republican appointees, voted 2-1 to publish a proposed rule that would end the practice, known as EEO-1 reporting, named for the forms that companies
with 100 or more employees have been compelled to complete since 1966.
The proposal would also eliminate similar reporting requirements for unions, state and local governments and public schools. It would not end a requirement under federal law that employers "make and keep such records."
The EEOC and its state-level counterparts have for decades used the information to investigate discrimination complaints filed by individual workers and to determine if companies exhibit a pattern of discriminatory conduct. The agency also publishes the aggregate data on its website without identifying individual employers.
But EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, said that sorting workers by race and sex can fuel discrimination, including against majority groups such as white people and men.
"The EEO data reports stand in direct tension with (federal law's) requirement that employment practices be colorblind," Lucas said in a statement.
In line with broader efforts by the Trump administration, Lucas has moved aggressively to focus the agency's resources on rooting out diversity, equity and inclusion policies that she says are unlawful.
Tuesday's vote clears the way for the proposal to be formally published, kicking off a public comment period. The rule could be finalized later this year. The annual reports are typically due on September 30.
Kalpana Kotagal, the lone Democratic member of the commission, voted to reject the proposal. She said in a statement that ending data collection would hinder the agency's work while sending the wrong message to workers and employers about the importance of workplace civil rights protections.
"These efforts should be seen for what they are: an attempt to weaken equal employment opportunity, and to undermine progress for women and historically marginalized communities," she said.
Kotagal said a future Democratic administration would likely reinstate the data collection requirement, and that employers should continue using the data they are required to collect to check their compliance with anti-discrimination laws.
Civil rights groups also condemned the move, saying it would lend cover to the commission's efforts to dilute legal protections for workers.
“Eliminating data about the demographics of the workforce not only makes discrimination harder to identify and address; it also makes it easier for the EEOC to justify enforcement priorities driven by politics rather than facts," said Katie Sandson, senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center.
During the administration of Democratic former President Barack Obama, the EEOC expanded annual reporting requirements to include data on workers' pay broken down by their race and sex. The changes drew sharp backlash from business groups and were ultimately abandoned by appointees of Trump during his first term.
Business groups have long argued that the reporting requirements are burdensome and have little benefit for workers or businesses. The EEOC on Tuesday said that rescinding the requirements would save U.S. employers nearly $275 million each year and cut the agency's costs by $4 million.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi)
