Victoria Lipnic

Victoria Ann Lipnic (born 1960) is an American lawyer. She has been a Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since 2010.[1]

Victoria Lipnic
Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Acting
In office
January 25, 2017 – May 15, 2019
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byJenny R. Yang
Succeeded byJanet Dhillon
United States Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards
In office
March 22, 2002 – January 20, 2009
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byBernard E. Anderson
Succeeded byShelby Hallmark (acting)
Personal details
Born
Victoria Ann Lipnic

1960 (age 59–60)
Carrolltown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Children2 sons
EducationAllegheny College (BA)
George Mason University (JD)

Early life

Lipnic was born in Carrolltown, Pennsylvania,[2] where her late father Ed Lipnic was a teacher and long-serving mayor.[1]

Lipnic has a bachelor's degree in Political Science and History from Allegheny College and a JD degree from George Mason University School of Law.[1]

Career

Before joining the EEOC in 2010, Lipnic was a counsel at the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Washington, DC.[1] She served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards from March 22, 2002 – January 20, 2009.[3]

In November 2016, it was speculated that Lipnic might become United States Secretary of Labor in the Trump Administration.[4]

Case Dumping while at the EEOC

Lipnic's time at the EEOC was marred by allegations of case dumping. According to the AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees), the labor union representing agency investigators, under Lipnic's tenure, the EEOC closed over 12,000+ cases summarily, violating the due process rights of aggrieved parties.[5] Figures from FEDweek, reported that as many as 70,000+ cases were closed in this manner. [6] On June 14,2019, Vox in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity, reported on on-going practices at the EEOC, in which cases were being closed prior to investigations. [7] [8] The period in which this took place coincided with the Me Too Movement.

Opposition to LGBTQ Protections

Under Lipnic, the EEOC reversed course in its legal interpretation that Title VII protections included LGBTQ workers.[9] On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court delivered its landmark ruling in Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda that the term 'sex' as described in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, encompassed workers who identified as members of the LGBTQ community. [10]

References

Url links work, remove the last four characters ("/%7C") to access content.

  1. "Victoria A. Lipnic, Commissioner". Eeoc.gov. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  2. CQ Press (9 October 2015). Federal Regulatory Directory. SAGE Publications. p. 331. ISBN 978-1-4833-8479-5.
  3. "U.S. Department of Labor — Employment Standards Administration (ESA) — ESA ASSISTANT SECRETARY". web.archive.org. January 6, 2009.
  4. "Lipnic seen as frontrunner for Labor Secretary". Employee Benefit News. November 18, 2016.
  5. "AFGE | Page Not Found". www.afge.org.
  6. "EEOC Lowers Backlog; Union Raises Eyebrows".
  7. Jameel, Maryam (June 14, 2019). "More and more workplace discrimination cases are being closed before they're even investigated". Vox.
  8. "What My Years at EEOC Have Taught Me, If the Agency Would Listen by Sharon Baker" (PDF).
  9. "The EEOC's Shocking Reversal on LGBT Protections Under Title VII". JD Supra. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  10. "Supreme Court Delivers Major Victory To LGBTQ Employees". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.