EEOC Releases Updated Workplace Harassment Guidance

On April 29, 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its final form Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace (Guidance). It is the EEOC's first update on its harassment guidance since 1999. The Guidance reflects the changes in the law, the findings and recommendation of the EEOC's bipartisan Select Task Force on Harassment in the Workplace, and emerging issues such as online harassment. It replaces five guidance documents issued between 1987 and 1999 and serves as unified agency resource on EEOC-enforced workplace harassment law.

The EEOC reviewed approximately 38,000 comments in developing the Guidance, many of which expressed concerns that the proposed guidance would infringe on free speech and religious rights by restricting speech regarding birth control and abortion or by requiring individuals to refer to another by their preferred pronouns. In response, the EEOC noted that "[w]hen the Commission is presented with