magnifier-1714172__340By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Alex W. Karasik

Seyfarth Synopsis:  The Sixth Circuit recently affirmed a U.S. District Court’s decision granting the EEOC’s application to enforce a subpoena in a disability discrimination investigation, finding that company-wide information regarding the employer’s use and disclosure of medical information was relevant to the investigation of a single employee’s charge of discrimination. The ruling underscores the challenges faced by employers in objecting to EEOC subpoenas.

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As we discussed in recent blog posts (here, here, and here), the EEOC has been aggressive in issuing expansive subpoenas that seek company-wide information from employers, as opposed to limiting the subpoena to seek information about an individual charging party.  In the latest round of EEOC versus employer subpoena litigation, in EEOC v. United Parcel Service, Inc., No. 16-2132, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 10280 (6th Cir. June 9, 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granting the EEOC’s application to enforce a subpoena that sought company-wide information, even though investigation concerned a single employee’s charge of discrimination.

This ruling provides yet another example of courts setting the bar low when considering what is “relevant” for purposes of the scope of an EEOC subpoena.  As such, employers can and should expect the EEOC to continue to be aggressive in firing off far-reaching subpoenas as it investigates high-stakes systemic discrimination claims.

Case Background

A UPS operations manager filed an EEOC charge claiming that UPS discriminated and retaliated against him in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”).  Id. at *1-2.  In particular, he claimed that UPS published confidential medical information about him and other employees on its intranet page.  Id. at *2.  The EEOC began an investigation into the employee’s claims, which resulted in the Commission issuing a subpoena that requested information about how UPS stored and disclosed employee medical information.  UPS opposed the subpoena, claiming that the requested information was irrelevant to his charge.  The EEOC thereafter filed an application to enforce the subpoena.  The District Court granted the EEOC’s application, and UPS appealed to the Sixth Circuit.

The Sixth Circuit’s Decision

The Sixth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s grant of the EEOC’s application to enforce the subpoena.  First, the Sixth Circuit explained that a subpoena enforcement proceeding is a summary process designed to expeditiously decide whether a subpoena should be enforced, and that the purpose is not to decide the merits of the underlying claim.  Id. at *4 (citation omitted).  Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in McLane v. EEOC, 137 S. Ct. 1159, 1170 (2017), which we blogged about previously here, the Sixth Circuit further instructed that it would review the District Court’s decision to enforce the subpoena under an abuse of discretion standard.  Id.

After noting that in the Title VII context the Sixth Circuit has held that the EEOC is entitled to evidence that focuses on the existence of patterns of racial discrimination in job classifications or hiring situations other than those that the EEOC’s charge specifically targeted, the Sixth Circuit opined that it saw “no reason to hold differently with respect to discrimination on the basis of disability.”  Id. at *5 (citations omitted).  Further, “so long as a charge alleges unlawful use of medical examinations and inquiries, evidence of patterns of such unlawful use is relevant to the charge under investigation.”  Id.  UPS argued that the EEOC was only entitled to information regarding similarly-situated employees.  The Sixth Circuit rejected this argument, noting that there was no such restriction under the ADA.   Id.

UPS further argued that the EEOC’s requested information was overbroad because the databases referenced in the EEOC’s subpoena contained information about employees from other regions in the United States and Canada, including one database where the Charging Party’s information never appeared.  The Sixth Circuit rejected this argument, noting that the breach of confidentiality that the employee described in his amended charge was not limited to himself since he alleged that “all other employees subject to Health and Safety incident action/reports have had their confidentiality breached in the same manner as me.”  Id. at *6.  The Sixth Circuit further determined that the EEOC was entitled to search for evidence that showed a pattern of discrimination other than the specific instance of discrimination described in the charge.  Id.

Turning to UPS’s argument that the amended charge was not valid because it “appears to have been amended for an illegitimate purpose — to obtain documents that the subpoena otherwise could not reach,” the Sixth Circuit held that UPS forfeited this argument since it did not raise it before the District Court.  Id.  Further, the Sixth Circuit rejected UPS’s argument that the EEOC’s subpoena was overbroad because it provided no temporal scope, noting that regardless of when UPS developed the criteria for posting content on its intranet site, this piece of evidence may provide insight into how UPS categorizes information as confidential.  Id. at *7.  Finally, the Sixth Circuit dismissed UPS’s argument that producing the requested information would be unduly burdensome, noting that UPS did not identify how producing the requested evidence would be difficult, especially considering that both parties acknowledged it could be produced electronically.  Accordingly, the Sixth Circuit held that the District Court did not abuse its discretion in ordering UPS to comply with the subpoena, and it affirmed the District Court’s decision.  Id. at *7-8.

Implications For Employers

Armed with yet another decision holding that an expansive EEOC subpoena was relevant to an investigation, the further emboldened EEOC likely will continue to seek far-reaching, company-wide information in its investigations, including those that stem from a single employee’s charge of discrimination.  Despite this recent trend of unfavorable rulings, employers should not let their guard down when confronted with broad EEOC subpoenas.  Rather, employers must carefully scrutinize each EEOC subpoena and aggressively attack its relevance when appropriate.

Readers can also find this post on our EEOC Countdown blog here.