Recent executive orders have upended decades of federal guidelines and standards regarding equal employment opportunity, affirmative action and discrimination in the workplace. DEI programs within the federal government as well as among federal contractors have specifically been targeted and dismantled, and the intent is to identify “illegal” DEI efforts in the private sector as well, although a definition of illegal DEI has not been spelled out.
The executive orders contend that policies and programs based on diversity, equity and inclusion promote and create discrimination in the form of “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” at the cost of all merit-based considerations.
According to this new math, DEI is something entirely unequal to the sum of its parts. But the words diversity, equity and inclusion still mean what they have always meant in the workplace: The opportunity for different people to work together toward a common goal. Title VII is still the law, and discrimination in the workplace is still illegal. As discussed in a recent webinar presented by the ELA (“Shock and Awe: How to Understand DEI After Trump EOs,” currently available to ES&A clients free and on demand), employers with DEI programs already in place do not have to abandon them wholesale, but they should review them and revise as needed, consulting counsel to do so under attorney-client privilege and in anticipation of any possible litigation. Among the topics covered in the webinar’s discussion of best practices for employers: