The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued Promising Practices for Preventing Harassment in the Construction Industry, a document outlining critical recommendations for industry leaders to combat harassment in construction.

Jocelyn Samuels, EEOC Vice Chair, spoke on this document at a White House roundtable with other federal agency executives, companies, trade unions, and other participants. Companies receiving federal grant funding under the CHIPS and Science Act discussed their commitments under the CHIPS Women in Construction Framework, which requires them to voluntarily maintain healthy, safe, and respectful workplaces as well as prevent and address harassment.

The document supports the EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) for fiscal years 2024-2028, which focuses on combating systematic harassment and removing barriers to recruiting and hiring, including for underrepresented groups in industries such as construction.

The document identifies core practices that will help prevent and address harassment in the construction industry: dedicated and engaged leadership; consistent and demonstrated accountability; strong and comprehensive harassment policies; trusted and accessible complaint procedures; and regular, interactive training tailored to the audience and the organization.

“The unique structure of construction jobs leaves workers especially vulnerable to workplace harassment”, explained Samuels. “The strategies outlined in our new Promising Practices document will help all construction industry stakeholders identify and take concrete steps to prevent harassment effectively, address it if it occurs, and create a worksite culture that promotes equal opportunity for all workers.”

The statement emphasizes the significance of committed leadership as a response to workplace harassment. One promising approach for project owners, including local and state governments, is to require provisions to combat harassment in contract bids. Because construction workers may be employed by multiple entities, another promising practice is for general contractors to provide an anonymous hotline to receive complaints from all onsite workers, as well as to confirm that each subcontractor has implemented its complaint channel.

It also examines industrial risk factors that raise the chance of harassment, such as predominantly male workforces, workplaces under pressure to conform to traditional expectations and decentralized workplaces. These issues may be compounded by the presence of several employers on a job site and the cyclical, project-based construction structure.

“At a time when job opportunities in construction are rapidly growing thanks to historic federal investments, significant harassment and discrimination still hinder equal employment opportunity in the industry”, said Charlotte A. Burrows, the EEOC Chair. The “EEOC is committed to removing barriers to equal opportunity, and these promising practices, together with the agency’s updated Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, provide resources to employers to help prevent and respond to harassment.”

The promising practices document follows EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows’ 2023 report, “Building For the Future: Advancing Equal Employment in the Construction Industry,” which examined discrimination based on race, national origin, and gender in the industry using EEOC cases, witness testimony from a 2022 EEOC hearing, and research. The research, which includes findings and recommendations for the next steps, identifies several hurdles that contribute to the underrepresentation of women, people of color, and other groups in the construction industry. The EEOC works to prevent and remedy unlawful employment discrimination and promote equal opportunity.

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