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ARTICLE · 30 SEPTEMBER 2026

EEOC Publishes New National Enforcement Plan

GGI | Global Alliance
GGI | Global Alliance
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The EEOC's 2025-2029 National Enforcement Plan signals a major shift in workplace discrimination enforcement, targeting DEI programs, religious accommodations, and sex-based workplace policies. Recent litigation against Coca-Cola and proposed regulatory changes to affirmative action guidance reveal how federal agencies are reshaping employment law compliance requirements.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Jessica Thaller-Moran (Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP)
Jessica Thaller-Moran (Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP)
Janelle L. Ariota (Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP)
Janelle L. Ariota (Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP)
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On 04 June 2026, the EEOC published its National Enforcement Plan to guide its enforcement efforts of anti-discrimination law through 2029. 

The plan identifies several focus areas, including remedying DEI-related race and sex discrimination, protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination, defending women’s rights to single-sex workplace spaces and employees’ rights to express the binary nature of sex, and protecting workers’ religious liberty rights, including the right to reasonable accommodations and freedom from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. 

The announcement of the 2025-2029 National Enforcement Plan is the latest development in the EEOC’s stated mission “to ensure equal opportunity, merit, and colorblind equality for all of America’s workers.” Under the leadership of EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, the EEOC has previously flagged its intent to prioritize enforcement against “illegal DEI” and to protect religious liberties. 

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