By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Christopher DeGroff, and Matthew Gagnon

In the words of the immortal bard Yogi Berra, “it’s like déjà vu all over again.”

As we have reported in years past (see here and here), the EEOC has a predictable trend of filing a flurry of lawsuits in the last days of its fiscal year, which ends on September 30. Fiscal year 2013-14 was no different. Like clockwork, the EEOC filed a spate of lawsuits as time ran out, yet again enmeshing dozens of employers across the country in government initiated litigation. Indeed, the EEOC filed an astonishing 58 lawsuits in September 2014 alone, up 10 lawsuits over September 2013. But does this year-end-rush accomplish the EEOC’s goals and square with its statutory mandate? The following post explores this annual governmental filing phenomenon and what it means to employers in its aftermath.

Different Year, Same Spike: FY 2014 Cases Filed By Month

As this graph shows, the year-end-rush is still a very real phenomenon for employers, with a gradual increase in filings throughout the year, punctuated by a final blast in September. Readers may note the uptick in December 2013. This was most likely due to clearing a backlog caused by the October 2013 government shut-down; we expect that, like most other government agencies, the EEOC needed a few weeks to get its legs back beneath it before it got back to business as usual.

The end-of-year rush pushed the total number of suits filed up a bit from last year, increasing to 142 from last year’s 134. But this is still a dramatic drop from the high point of 261 filings in 2011. This drop, however, is consistent with the EEOC’s 2012 strategic enforcement plan, which directed the regional offices to pursue more systemic, class-wide employment discrimination cases. In short, the EEOC continues to strive for getting the most bang for the taxpayer buck.

But with fewer total filings, what has consumed the EEOC’s resources this year? Where does the money go? We have developed some ideas based on our study of EEOC activity:

The EEOC Is Still Fighting The Giants From Previous Years

The EEOC has finite resources. Predictably, one problem the EEOC faces with an increased focus on systemic cases is that these whopper cases take up more resources and last longer than garden-variety matters. The EEOC is still fighting some of the same major cases that it filed during the high-water mark for filings. For example, the EEOC recently convinced U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison to reverse, at least in part, his earlier employer-friendly decision in EEOC v. Bass Pro Outdoor World, LLC, et al., Case No. 11-CV-3425 (S.D. Tex. July 30, 2014). That large-scale case still remains in its relative infancy, even though it was filed in 2011.

The EEOC has also continued its battle against employers – and at least one state – over the legality of using credit and criminal background checks to make hiring and employment decisions. We have blogged often about this beleaguered EEOC initiative over the past few years. At least one of those cases came to a spectacular end this year in a stunning defeat for the EEOC, while other battles continue to rage on. As we previously blogged about here, the EEOC recently lost a landmark case against Kaplan Higher Education Corp. where the Sixth Circuit upbraided the EEOC for the “homemade” methodology that the agency used to determine race in that case – namely, by asking “race raters” to assign race based on drivers’ license photographs – concluding that it was “crafted by a witness with no particular expertise to craft it, administered by persons with no particular expertise to administer it, tested by no one, and accepted only by the witness himself.”

But this EEOC theory lives on in the EEOC v. Freeman case, which is up for appellate review before the Fourth Circuit, and in the November 2013 case that Texas brought to enjoin the enforcement of the EEOC’s criminal history guidance.  As we discussed here, that suit was dismissed on August 20, 2014 in State of Texas v. EEOC, Case No.5:13-CV-255 (N.D. Tex. Aug. 20, 2014). The Court held that Texas lacked standing to maintain its suit because Texas did not allege that any enforcement action had been taken against it in relation to the EEOC’s guidance. While an important victory for the EEOC, this decision left untouched the important substantive issues regarding the EEOC’s guidance, which will have to be fought another day.

The key to this retrospective is that when analyzing EEOC activity, it is often necessary to look back at filings from previous years, as that activity impacts the EEOC’s resources and strategies today.

Clearing The Underbrush For An Enhanced Systemic Program

The EEOC also appears to be taking another strategic direction in FY2014: deploying considerable resources to litigate high-level, defining issues that will have a major impact on its ability to carry out its systemic initiative. As we previously blogged about here, in 2012 the EEOC issued its strategic enforcement plan that outlined the priorities for the Commission’s enforcement activity through 2016.  We have dissected the potential ways that the SEP would guide enforcement priorities as it was implemented (see, e.g., here, here, and here). But by FY2014, we start to see the EEOC’s agenda snap into clearer focus, and note how the government has adjusted its activities to pursue the SEP objectives. Of course, one of the EEOC’s most important strategic objectives is an increased focus on pattern or practice, policy, or class cases where the alleged discrimination has a broad impact on an industry, profession, company or geographic area. These so-called “systemic” cases are developing into its single most important litigation driver.

But this year, the agency has focused substantial resources to tackle the legal issues that could, if the EEOC is successful, sweep away certain procedural prerequisites to filing suit that the EEOC believes just get in the way of its enforcement efforts, especially concerning systemic cases.

Perhaps chief among those procedural brake-pumps is the EEOC’s statutorily mandated obligation to conciliate in good faith before bringing suit against an employer.  On June 30, 2014, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Mach Mining, LLC v. EEOC (No. 13-1019). As we have discussed a length here, the outcome of that case could be a game-changer in EEOC litigation because the EEOC seeks to effectively immunize itself from any attack on its failure to meaningfully conciliate with an employer before bringing a lawsuit. The Seventh Circuit ruled in December 2013 that the EEOC’s failure to conciliate is not an affirmative defense to the merits of an employment discrimination suit.  The Court held that such pre-suit obligations were beyond judicial scrutiny as long as the EEOC’s complaint pleads it has complied with all procedures required under Title VII, and the relevant documents are facially sufficient. This decision is now up for review by the Supreme Court because of the conflict among the circuits created by the Seventh Circuit’s decision. As we previously blogged about here, Seyfarth Shaw submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of the American Insurance Association, questioning the underpinning of the Seventh Circuit’s decision.

But conciliation is not the only procedural hurdle that the EEOC seeks to dismantle. It is also challenging the court’s ability to inquire into the scope of the EEOC’s pre-suit investigation as well. On March 10, 2014, in EEOC v. Sterling Jewelers Inc., Case No. 08-CV-706 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 10, 2014), Judge Richard J. Arcara of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York dismissed the EEOCs’ entire case against Sterling Jewelers with prejudice. In so doing, the Court rejected the EEOC’s contention that a court may not inquire as to the scope of the EEOC’s pre-lawsuit investigation, and found no evidence that the EEOC had actually investigated the nationwide claims that it had brought against Sterling prior to bringing suit. The EEOC promptly appealed that decision, which is now being litigated at the Second Circuit.

Pushing The Envelope On Non-Substantive Legal Theories

Not content to continue to pursue the novel issues raised in prior years, the EEOC is also attempting to add new weapons to its enforcement arsenal. In EEOC v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc., Case No. 14-CV-863 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 7, 2014), the EEOC challenged various provisions of CVS’s standard severance agreement, arguing that it violates Title VII because it interferes with an employee’s right to file charges, communicate voluntarily, and participate in investigations with the EEOC and other state agencies. In addition to the general release and the covenant not to sue – which were already areas of concern for the EEOC – the EEOC also challenged the agreement’s requirements that employees notify the company of any legal proceedings or administrative investigations, the non-disparagement provision, and the agreement’s prohibition on the disclosure of confidential information without the company’s consent. Although preliminary comments from the judge strongly suggest that this case will be dismissed, the EEOC is already pursuing a different employer under a similar theory in the District of Colorado. See EEOC v. CollegeAmerica Denver, Inc., Case No. 14-cv-01232-LTB-MJW (D. Colo.).

And in EEOC v. Supervalu, Inc. and Jewel-Osco, Case No. 1:09-CV-05637 (N.D. Ill.), the EEOC attacked an employer for supposedly failing to comply with the injunctive mandates that the employer had agreed to as part of a consent decree entered into with the EEOC.  The EEOC had sued Supervalu, Inc. and Jewel-Osco (“Jewel”) in 2009, alleging that it engaged in a pattern or practice of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. On January 14, 2011, the EEOC and Jewel entered into a three-year consent decree to resolve the case. Jewel agreed, among other things, to engage an “accommodations consultant” to assist in identifying possible accommodations for disabled employees.

But just a year later, on March 26, 2012, the EEOC sought civil contempt sanctions against Jewel for failing to follow the requirements of the consent decree. Magistrate Judge Mason of the Northern District of Illinois filed his Report and Recommendation on July 15, 2014, ruling that Jewel violated the terms of the consent decree by allegedly failing to follow its own procedures, including the use of an accommodations consultant, and failing to accommodate and ultimately terminating three disabled employees. The EEOC almost always insists on some form of injunctive relief when it settles a case through a consent decree. If enforcement of the terms of those decrees is the new cause of action de jour, then this poses an entirely new threat to employers, who could face substantial exposure even after a case is settled and “over.”

Finally, the EEOC has been steadily increasing its use of its subpoena power to gather as much information as possible from employers prior to filing suit. Fiscal year 2014 saw 24 subpoena actions versus the 17 that were filed last year. As we have discussed here, although some employers have been successful in reigning in the EEOC’s subpoena power, many courts continue to give the agency considerable leeway to conduct searching pre-suit investigations, even where those investigations have little or no connection to the underlying charge.

What Types Of Cases Did The EEOC Focus On In FY2014?

Of course, the legal shifts discussed above are not the only story coming out of the EEOC’s FY2014 filings. We can also discern significant trends in the types of cases that the EEOC is choosing to pursue.  The following chart offers a breakdown of the EEOC’s filings by statute:

We continue to see a strong focus on disability issues: disability cases make up 34% of all EEOC filings this year, fairly close to the number of cases we saw filed last year (36% in 2013). Race cases were somewhat underrepresented this year when compared with past years (14 in 2014, as compared with 17 in 2013), but there has been a fairly sizable uptick in age discrimination filings (nine this year, compared with only five in 2013).

By far, sex and pregnancy issues are the dominant discrimination theories alleged in Title VII cases in FY2014. The Commission filed 6 pregnancy discrimination cases in September alone, and has repeatedly emphasized that this is a priority for the agency. In a recent case filing announcement, for example, the EEOC’s press release stressed that “[t]he law is clear – employers cannot refuse to hire or discharge women because of their pregnancy,” and that “[c]ombating pregnancy discrimination remains a priority.” Indeed, sex/pregnancy discrimination cases make up 61% of all Title VII cases filed in 2014:

Aggressive Regional Offices

Finally, as with prior years, FY2014 saw significant disparities in the number and types of filings coming out of the EEOC’s 15 districts. Five districts in particular are unusually aggressive in the number of cases they file, the types of cases they bring, and how aggressive they pursue those cases. Here is a breakdown of how many cases were filed where:

The EEOC’s Chicago district office, led by regional attorney John Hendrickson, remains one of the most aggressive in the country, pursuing not only a large number of cases (26 in FY2014), but also cases that are themselves large and important in terms of their impact on U.S. employers. CVS, Jewel, and Mach Mining, discussed above, all started in Chicago.

The Philadelphia office is also consistently active and aggressive. That office took the lead in a handful of cases alleging that employers’ use of criminal and credit history background checks had an adverse impact on minority applicants.  Although one of those cases, EEOC v. Kaplan, Inc., resulted in a stinging defeat for the agency at the district court and the Sixth Circuit, another case, EEOC v. Freeman, lives on at the appellate level. The Fourth Circuit is set to decide that case after a Maryland federal judge granted summary judgment to the company.

The New York office has also been quite active, and is pursuing a handful of high profile pregnancy and sex discrimination cases that are still winding their way through the Courts. Chief among those are the Sterling case discussed above, which is now before the Second Circuit, and a pregnancy discrimination suit against Bloomberg LP, which was gutted by the district court in September 2013, and which the EEOC was forced to walk away from in August of this year.

Rounding out the list of hard-hitting regional offices are the Houston office and the Phoenix office, which are both known to file high-profile cases and aggressively pursue them. Those offices filed 9 cases and 14 cases respectively in 2014.

Insight For Employers

Fiscal Year 2014 was curious in many ways. We can see the unquestionable fingerprints of the 2012 SEP in the EEOC’s filings, and we can expect to see those trends continue. But we also see the agency making more nuanced, strategic decisions with how it uses its finite resources – choosing to fight a number of procedural issues that may pave the way (at least if the EEOC has its way) to an open door to the federal courthouse in years to come, unfettered by procedural prerequisites. The 2014 fiscal year has just ended, and we continue to process this data. The EEOC’s official published statistics are typically released in November, which will give us additional insight into this often confounding agency. Stay tuned, loyal blog readers.

Readers can also find this post on our EEOC Countdown blog here.