The Trump administration has reversed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s decision to expand reporting requirements for the EEO-1 Form.

Already facing a court challenge, the rules had created a dilemma for employers. If the courts had let them stand, the information would need to be gathered starting in October for reports that would have been due in 2018 (AA, 8-15-17, P. 4).

The new form adopted last year by the Obama-era EEOC significantly increased the amount of data employers were required to submit each year.

Previously, EEO-1 report required submission of 180 data points, but the new one had demanded 3,660 data points for employers with 100 or more employees (and federal contractors with 50 or more employees), and for each employer location with more than 50 employees.

Employers were not required to file EEO-1 reporst this year, but the deadline for the next one of March 31, 2018, had to be based on a workforce “snapshot” taken between October and December.

On Aug. 29 the White House Office of Management and Budget stayed the requirements, saying they “lack practical utility, were unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.”

In taking the action, OMB said EEOC failed to provide adequate notice and opportunity for public comment, and slammed the commission’s low-ball estimate of the cost to employers.

EEOC estimated the burden at $54 million and 1.9 million hours. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pegged it at more than $400 million in direct costs and more than eight million hours of labor.

EEOC Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic said the commission may continue to use the new form, but only to collect the “traditional” EEO-1 information (the number of employees by race, sex and ethnicity in each of the 10 previous EEO-1 categories).