Employers should expect to see a big wave of enforcementactions from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commissionover the next few months, as the commission ramps up its effortsahead of its fiscal year-end on Sept. 30.

The EEOC traditionally brings a raft of cases toward the end ofthe fiscal year, as Congress considers the budget, says ChristopherDeGroff, a partner in the Chicago-based law firm of Seyfarth &Shaw. He warns that companies need to take steps now so as not tobe caught up in those actions, which can be both costly anddamaging to a company's reputation.

An EEOC spokeswoman, Justine Lisser, confirms that the agency,charged with enforcing laws against employment discrimination andharassment, historically has piled it on toward year's end, but shepredicts that will change in coming years. “Starting next year, youwill see the agency charging out of the box from the beginning,”she says.