Tennessee General Assembly members recently voted to remove references to women, minorities, people with disabilities and veterans from the state’s equal employment opportunity (EEO) plan.
As the Tennessee Lookout recently reported, the state’s EEO plan “has long guided [Tennessee] in tracking its own employment practices and rectifying discriminatory practices.
Effective Oct. 7, however, the state will no longer formally track or publicly report on the demographics interviewed, hired or promoted jobs in the executive branch of Tennessee state government.
The General Assembly has also eliminated the requirement that state agencies take steps to recruit, promote and hire women and minorities if they are underrepresented in the Tennessee government workforce, the publication’s Anita Wadhwani wrote, noting that the rule change “drew pushback from Democrats, a minority on the Republican-dominated Joint Government Operations Committee.”
“We won’t have the data to know if there’s a problem or not,” said Rep. G.A. Hardaway, a Memphis Democrat, at the hearing on the new rule.
Melanie Koewler, deputy general counsel for Tennessee’s Department of Human Resources, maintained that the rule change was necessary to comply with the Trump administration’s January executive order banning affirmative action in government employment, as well as state laws that prohibit Tennessee from considering race, ethnicity, sex or age as part of employment decisions.
Noting that the state is still obligated to track the employment of veterans and people with disabilities, Koewler added that anyone seeking information on the number of women or minorities working in state jobs will have to request that data.
“Any information that is a public record any citizen can request a report,” said Koewler in the hearing. “We would receive it and process it just like any other public records request.”
22 September 2025
Category
HR News Article
