Lauri F. Rasnick, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s New York office, was quoted in Law360 Employment Authority, in “EEOC Suit Against Coke Bottler Illuminates Anti-DEI Strategy,” by Anne Cullen. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
The agency's complaint, filed Tuesday in New Hampshire federal court, accuses Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast of inviting only female employees to a two-day trip and networking event two years ago at the Mohegan Sun resort and casino in Connecticut.
One of the federal laws the EEOC is tasked with enforcing, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The agency said in a statement barring men from an employer-sponsored event is a Title VII violation that could draw agency action. ...
But it is also the first substantive suit the EEOC has filed over a DEI-related initiative, offering clues as to how the commission plans to go after these programs in court, said Lauri Rasnick, a member at Epstein Becker Green who advises employers.
"It's instructive in several ways, because it shows how the EEOC would really pursue a case along these lines," Rasnick said.
In particular, Rasnick said the case hints at how the EEOC is moving forward in light of the Trump administration's disavowal of disparate impact theory, a legal tool that could be used to challenge a well-intentioned DEI program that winds up disadvantaging a specific cohort of workers.
The theory offers an avenue to challenge workplace policies that aren't applied in an overtly discriminatory way but still yield uneven outcomes.
