By Braden Campbell

Law360 (March 20, 2020, 7:38 PM EDT) -- Like many private employers, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, U.S. Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board have closed some offices or moved many operations online in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Here, Law360 looks at what this new reality means for attorneys who deal with the labor and employment watchdogs.

The EEOC

The EEOC — which investigates complaints of workplace discrimination and takes action against employers or permits workers to sue — has taken aggressive steps to curb the coronavirus' spread among its ranks and the public it serves.

The agency in recent weeks expanded teleworking in regional offices in areas hit hard by the virus and started receiving discrimination complaints entirely over the phone or online, and on Tuesday, it told all workers to telework indefinitely save for the "minimal" staff needed to handle mail.

The transition has been somewhat rocky, but the watchdog has not had to scale down operations, EEOC Director of Field Programs Nicholas Inzeo told Law360.

"Trying to move all of our field staff to telework [in a short period of time] has been a challenge," said Inzeo. "Fortunately, we've got some really good technology that we've developed through the years that's serving us well."

Inzeo said workers who visit an EEOC outpost to file a complaint will be greeted by a notice giving them three ways to reach an agent: calling a national hotline, contacting a local official, or using a robust online charge system the agency rolled out nearly two years ago.

Once a worker files a charge, the agency will conduct an intake interview to ascertain the specifics of their claim. The EEOC ordinarily gives workers a choice between an in-person or phone interview, but is now only conducting interviews by phone, Inzeo said.

After it takes in a complaint, it notifies the charged employer, which can ask to mediate the dispute or file a statement rebutting the complaint. This too is done online, and in the case of mediation, represents a departure from pre-coronavirus norms, Inzeo said.

"Our mediation has been almost always in-person mediation," Inzeo said. "We have fairly quickly moved to using telephone mediation. It's a different animal."

Interviews with witnesses to alleged discrimination, which the agency often conducts on-site, have also moved online or over the phone, he said.

The EEOC has put most of its charge administration process online, but it had not added the ability to share the results of its investigations with workers and employers before the virus hit, Inzeo said. In recent days, field officials have started sharing results by email, and the agency is working on a way to bring the whole process online, he said.

In addition to handling charges, the EEOC's field offices also hold outreach events or conduct in-person trainings to guide employers on compliance with federal discrimination law. The agency is continuing to offer its guidance electronically amid the pandemic.

Meanwhile, EEOC chair Janet Dhillon has convened a daily teleconference with agency leaders and launched a group charged with anticipating the agency's needs "a month or more out," Inzeo said.

"We're going to try to make [the transition] as seamless as we can," he said.

The NLRB

The NLRB, which facilitates union elections and decides disputes between business and labor, has been hit hard by the virus. The watchdog closed its Washington, D.C., office on March 12 because of a possible exposure and shuttered several regional offices in the ensuing days. Like the EEOC, the board has told essentially all employees to telework until the pandemic abates.

As of Friday, the agency had temporarily closed its Cleveland, New Orleans, Manhattan, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and Denver offices and told parties needing help to contact nearby offices. It planned to reopen its Denver and Manhattan offices with "limited service" on Monday, however.

Virus concerns have forced changes to the board's operations, including the suspension of all union votes — in person and by mail — through April 3, and the postponement of scheduled hearings until April 1 at the earliest, according to internal guidance.

The agency is only serving decisions by the board and its administrative judges via its online E-Service program, according to the guidance. And the agency is taking affidavits from witnesses and parties to disputes over the phone unless an in-person affidavit is "absolutely necessary," a spokesman said.

The crisis has also pushed back an imminent rule change that slows down union elections. On Friday, the agency told the Washington, D.C., judge overseeing an AFL-CIO challenge to the so-called election rule that it had pushed the rule's effective date from April 16 to May 31.

The DOL

The DOL, which has a range of duties including enforcing federal wage and worker safety laws and overseeing training programs, has also expanded teleworking, but has not issued a blanket order like the EEOC and NLRB. A DOL representative said this week that the agency was encouraging workers in the Washington, D.C., area to telework through April 3, and that it had "authorized all agency heads to maximize telework nationwide."

The agency did not say Friday whether the virus had disrupted enforcement or shifted aspects online or over the phone, but it has issued a few public updates on its operations.

On Tuesday, the department sub-office that monitors government contractors for job bias temporarily paused certain contract prerequisites for businesses hired for goods and services related to the pandemic. Such businesses will not have to enact affirmative action plans for contracts dated between March 17 and June 17, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs said.

The DOL has also paused operations at its Job Corps training centers nationwide, the agency said Tuesday.

--Editing by Philip Shea and Alanna Weissman.

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