Union Sues EEOC Over Secret Directive Freezing Federal-Sector Class Action Discrimination Complaints
The legal battle over the Trump administration's sweeping overhaul of federal civil rights enforcement has escalated into a major lawsuit. On July 28, 2026, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and two federal employees filed a complaint against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging a secret agency-wide freeze1 on federal-sector class-action discrimination complaints.
The lawsuit alleges that EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas issued an unpublished directive in December that instructed administrative judges to halt all proceedings in class-action discrimination and harassment complaints affecting federal employees.2 According to the union, this freeze directly flouts federal regulations that require the prompt processing and adjudication of such complaints.
The lawsuit highlights the severe, real-world impact of the freeze on a pending class action brought in 2024 by two female correctional officers at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) Pollock in Louisiana. The officers alleged severe and ongoing sexual harassment against female employees at the prison, but the administrative judge assigned to the case issued an order putting an immediate halt to all proceedings following the EEOC's directive:
"The Trump administration’s unprecedented suspension of class action discrimination cases is a direct attack on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This action inhibits our ability to address widespread, reoccurring discrimination in the workplace and prevents employees who are part of ongoing class actions from having their cases processed and adjudicated... Justice delayed is justice denied, and the EEOC’s refusal to act on these class-action complaints is causing direct harm and personal injury to our members."
Heidi Burakiewicz, founding partner of Burakiewicz & DePriest and counsel for the plaintiffs, argued that by refusing to process class claims, the EEOC has "abandoned the women and prevented them from obtaining implementation of steps to stop the ongoing sexual harassment." The AFGE joined the suit as a plaintiff because the suspension prevents the union from effectively counseling and representing its members in EEOC proceedings.
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An instance of Centralizing executive control over the military and civil service triggers automatic institutional backlash. — The administration's unilateral administrative directive to freeze class-action complaints provoked a direct retaliatory lawsuit from the primary federal employee union. ↩︎
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An instance of Unwritten agency directives allow executive leadership to halt federal civil rights protections without public review. — It directly illustrates the use of an unpublished directive by an agency chair to freeze civil rights protection proceedings without public review. ↩︎