The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the civil rights agency in charge of enforcing worker rights, will stop investigating complaints about company policies that don’t explicitly discriminate but may disproportionately harm certain groups, the Associated Press reports.
A memo emailed on Monday to area, local and district office directors of the agency said it would discharge by Tuesday any complaints based on “disparate impact liability.”
The legal concept argues that even if a policy appears fair, it may still be discriminatory if it creates unnecessary barriers that make it more difficult for certain groups of people to succeed.
The EEOC’s decision to drop such cases aligns with President Donald Trump’s April executive order directing federal agencies to deprioritize the use of disparate impact in civil rights enforcement.
The move marks a significant shift in EEOC enforcement, and critics say it weakens an effective legal tool used to root out workplace discrimination.
