The EEOC wants to rescind 2024 harassment guidance for employers. Here’s what HR needs to know.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposal to rescind 2024 guidance on workplace harassment is being met by condemnation from former EEOC commissioners and Department of Labor officials.

The proposal was issued as a “final rule” to the White House on Dec. 29, 2025, bypassing the comment period traditionally afforded to the public with the introduction of rule changes. Shortly after, on Jan. 7, 2026, EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said the commission may revoke current voting procedures, Bloomberg Law reported.

“There was a set process by which the commissioners would each get a reasonable amount of time to review a proposed guidance,” Jenny R. Yang, former chair of the EEOC and member of EEO Leaders, a group of former EEOC and Department of Labor officials, told HR Brew. “They (the EEOC) are violating their own regulations that require notice and comment. This was required by the first Trump administration, and those regulations still remain in place, so I guess we’ll see what happens with some of that voting process.”

The harassment guidance, issued during the Biden administration, provided employers with tangible examples to help them prevent and address discrimination if and when it arises. Both workers and employers could be left without clarity around the law, and without an understanding of why the EEOC made the changes.

“Employers value the guidance…It’s not viewed, in my experience, just as a regulatory burden, because employers want to understand how to comply,” Yang said.

Lucas is an opponent of DEI and disparate impact laws, and has introduced policies targeting the LGBTQ+ community. EEO Leaders believes rescinding the current harassment guidance will “limit the tools” employers have to keep workers safe, according to a public letter.

“It really impacts everyone who may be subjected to harassment and employers who are working to prevent and respond to harassment,” Yang said. “Without it, employers, employees, and the public are without any authoritative guidance on how to interpret the Title VII (of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) requirements.”

Title VII is meant in part to keep workers safe from discrimination in the workplace on the basis of protected class, including gender, race, religion, and ethnicity. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII also protects against harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

“Title VII gives the EEOC regulatory authority only over procedures – like what sort of documents you need to retain and for how long,” Yang explained. “It doesn't give the EEOC substantive regulatory authority. So this guidance is not binding.”

While Yang said that it’s “startling” that Lucas is attempting to narrow discrimination law, which is, “completely inconsistent with decades of jurisprudence,” it doesn’t change the basis of Title VII and the associated regulations. “It doesn't change the law.”

The EEOC did not respond to requests for comment.