Littler: Immigration policy among retailers’ top workplace concerns
Inclusion, equity and diversity (IE&D) and immigration policy rank as top concerns among the nation’s employers, particularly in the retail sector.
That’s according to the 13th Annual Employer Survey released by Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management. Nearly all (89%) retail/hospitality employers expressed expect enforcement by ICE and DHS to have a significant or moderate impact on their workplaces compared with 70% of all employers.
The Littler survey draws on insights from nearly 350 in-house lawyers, business executives and human resources professionals — 36% of whom hold C-suite positions — to understand the most pressing workplace concerns among executives in the current environment and how they are navigating them.
Most employers (84%) say that changes to workplace regulations and policies surrounding IE&D will impact their businesses during the first year of the Trump administration, followed by changes related to immigration policy (75%) and LGBTQ+ protections in the workplace (58%).
“With the expected uptick in worksite enforcement, it is important for employers to proactively conduct reviews to check that I-9 forms are up to date, that they know where they’re located, and that there is a crisis management team in place in the event of a site visit from ICE or another government agency,” advised Jorge R. Lopez, Littler shareholder and chair of the firm’s Immigration and Global Mobility Practice Group.
The business impact carries over to prospective litigation, with nearly half of employers (45%) concerned about litigation related to IE&D practices. That’s almost double the 24% of respondents who expressed concern in last year’s survey.
Yet despite the challenges that employers face related to policy changes and litigation risk, 45% of respondents report that their organizations are staying the course and not considering new or further rollbacks of their IE&D programs in response to executive orders issued by the Trump administration.
Other highlights from the Littler survey are below (for the full study, click here):
- Against the backdrop of a more lax enforcement regime and less stringent regulation from the Trump administration, 31% of employers — and 47% of technology organizations — are increasing or planning to increase their use of AI in the workplace. Yet 31% of respondents also say that their organizations still do not have any policies or guidelines to oversee employee use of this technology.
- Nearly half (47%) of employers in the retail/hospitality sector have recently experienced conflict between employees seeking accommodation of their religious beliefs and IE&D-related initiatives in the workplace, compared to 35% of employers overall. Requests for religious accommodations in the workplace are likely to rise too, as the new administration and the EEOC have signaled a focus on protecting freedom of religion
- Fifty-seven percent of respondents — and 65% of those in retail and hospitality — also expect changes impacting employee accommodations (e.g., related to pregnancy, disability or religion).
- As for employee work schedules, 48% of respondents whose organizations have positions that can be performed remotely say they have increased in-person work requirements during the past 12 months or are considering doing so. Most are focused on increasing the number of required in-person workdays within their hybrid schedules, with 29% having already done so and 12% considering such a change.
- As to the specific areas where employers are seeing increased requests for leaves of absences and/or accommodations, 70% have seen a rise in requests related to mental health conditions, building on the already high percentage of employers (74%) who were seeing an increased volume of such requests in last year’s survey. A large share of respondents also note increases in requests for intermittent/reduced schedule leaves (45%) and extended/open-ended leaves (26%).
- Among respondents whose organizations have increased their in-office requirements, 56% have seen more requests for remote work accommodations. Amid this influx, 50% are concerned about workplace accommodation lawsuits over the next year.
“For companies looking to increase in-office work, it’s important to have a plan in place for the likely influx of remote work requests,” said Alexis C. Knapp Littler shareholder and co-chair of the Leaves of Absence and Disability Accommodation Practice Group. “In managing these requests and communicating processes, it’s also important to distinguish between legal obligations to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities and employee requests for flexibility that do not involve a legally binding accommodation obligation.”
