Employment Law Update: What Does the Federal Shutdown Mean to Employers?
Date: October 9, 2025
By:
Steven E. Bers
The EEOC published contingency plan states that 1,686 of the Agency’s 1,814 employees are being furloughed. EEOC staff are not available to respond to requests or questions. The Agency will still accept new discrimination charges through its online Public Portal to determine whether they must be processed (e.g., to preserve claimants’ rights), but it will not investigate or mediate charges. During prior shutdowns, the EEOC has extended filing deadlines for employer position statements, but clients remain well-advised to still communicate, in some way, within any current deadline.
The NLRB has furloughed all non-essential employees, with the only “essential employees” identified as the actual NLRB Board Members, Executive Secretary, and the Acting and Deputy General Counsel, as well as employees “called for emergencies involving threat to life or property.” Necessarily, virtually all NLRB functions have ceased, including union-representation elections, the processing or investigation of unfair labor practice charges, and any hearings.
The DOL Contingency Plan identified 12,916 employees before the shutdown. Approximately 9,750 are furloughed, with the retained 3,180 employees comprised of employees funded by a non-appropriations source (e.g., fee funding), necessary to protect life and safety (e.g., mine inspection), or otherwise “necessary to perform duties otherwise provided by law.” Most notably, employment standards functions (e.g., wage and hour investigations and overtime enforcement), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics have been reduced to skeleton staff levels.
The impact on private employers with federal contracts can vary widely, determined by whether the contract includes an essential service or good, or whether the contract is funded by a means other than federal funding. By any measure, current enforcement or investigation backlogs will be increased, even if the federal shutdown ends in short order.
Clients with current or potential matters before the DOL, EEOC, and/or NLRB should contact counsel to identify the specific impact of the shutdown, especially as the shutdown may affect any filing deadlines.
The information contained here is not intended to provide legal advice or opinion and should not be acted upon without consulting an attorney. Counsel should not be selected based on advertising materials, and we recommend that you conduct further investigation when seeking legal representation.