On December 29, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a request with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget asking for authorization to cancel guidance EEOC issued in 2024 titled “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace”.
Issued during the Biden Administration, this document provides specific guidance on what does and does not constitute harassment in the workplace and includes many real-world examples to educate both employers and employees.
This request to fully rescind the guidance follows changes made to the document in 2025. In May 2025, after a court vacated portions of the guidance related to harassment on the basis of gender identity, the EEOC annotated parts of the guidance on their website to reflect the vacated portions. At that time, however, EEOC could not rescind or modify the document because the Commission lacked the quorum required to do so. With the appointment of Brittany Bull Panuccio as Commissioner in October 2025 a quorum was restored, allowing the Commission to move forward with the request to rescind the guidance document. In an unusual move, the EEOC sent the recission request as a final rule, as opposed to a proposal, which would require notice and public comment.
A group of former EEOC and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs officials decried the request to rescind the guidance, responding with a written statement on January 6, 2026. The group, known as EEO Leaders, wrote that ‘the rescission request is part of this Administration’s broader effort to weaken enforcement of federal employment anti-discrimination laws and, simultaneously, to diminish public understanding that federal law firmly prohibits harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity’. They go on to argue that the United States Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination covers bias based on gender identity and sexual orientation, supports the 2024 guidance from a legal perspective.
On January 14, 2026, EEOC published a notice of an open commission meeting on January 22, 2026, and included the ‘Recissions of Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace’ on the list of matters to be considered at the meeting.
While HR practitioners are watching these developments closely, it’s important to remember that the rescission does not mean that employers should ignore workplace harassment, or that EEOC won’t seek to remedy valid claims of harassment. Quite the contrary, harassment was the most frequently alleged claim in EEOC’s FY 2024 charge docket. And while there are parts of the Biden-era guidance that were controversial when published, much of the advice related to preventing and addressing harassment still reflects current federal law and best practices for employers. This includes establishing clear anti-harassment policies and providing regular anti-harassment training to employees.