Nathaniel M. Glasser, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in the Bloomberg Law Daily Labor Report, in “Employers Battle False Sense of Security on AI Disparate Impact,” by Chris Marr.
Following is an excerpt:
A Trump order denouncing disparate impact bias claims. EEOC’s moves to shift the agency’s workplace discrimination enforcement. Similar Justice Department policy changes. And even the new Texas artificial intelligence law taking effect Jan. 1.
At each turn this year, employment lawyers have encountered another policy pronouncement offering businesses a false sense of security about assessing their AI-powered hiring tools for disparate impact, otherwise known as unintentional discrimination. …
Workplace AI bias litigation is in its infancy, with employment lawyers watching a handful of bellwether cases. Disparate impact is the likely path for these cases—though intentional bias, or disparate treatment, claims can’t be ruled out.
This means the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s decision to drop investigations of disparate impact cases makes the agency less likely to enforce AI bias cases.
Still, revised federal “enforcement priorities don’t mean the government has conveyed any kind of legal immunity on companies that are implementing the tools,” said Nathaniel Glasser, an attorney at Epstein Becker & Green PC. …
