> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.workersrights.news/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Trump's Labor Department ends harassment training and retaliation rules for 700,000 apprentices
- URL: https://www.workersrights.news/trump-dol-ends-apprentice-harassment-training-retaliation-rule/
- Published: 2026-11-09T04:29:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-09T04:29:54.000Z
- Description: A final rule published Nov. 6 also scraps affirmative action duties for 26,628 apprenticeship programs. It takes effect Jan. 5.
- Author: WorkersRights.News Team
- Tags: Economy, Politics

Trump's Labor Department has finalized a rule that ends required harassment training in the nation's Registered Apprenticeship programs and repeals the apprenticeship rule that protected apprentices from retaliation when they complain.

The rule, published in the [Federal Register](https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-22680.pdf?ref=workersrights.news) on Nov. 6, also scraps the affirmative action duties these programs have carried for decades. It takes effect Jan. 5, 2027.

Registered apprenticeships are the earn-while-you-learn programs that train electricians, welders, nursing assistants and IT workers. At the end of fiscal year 2025, 26,628 active programs were training more than 700,000 apprentices, according to the department's own figures in the rule.

## What apprentices lose

The old rules, known as Part 30 and last updated in 2016, required every program sponsor, whatever its size, to:

- train everyone connected with the program to prevent harassment;
- name a person responsible for equal opportunity;
- post an equal opportunity pledge;
- and, for programs with five or more apprentices, analyze who they hire by race, sex and ethnicity.

The new rule drops all of that, [HR Dive reported](https://www.hrdive.com/news/dol-proposes-revamp-of-discrimination-practices-in-apprenticeships/873924/?ref=workersrights.news) and the rule text confirms.

It also repeals Section 30.17, which barred sponsors from intimidating, coercing or retaliating against apprentices who filed a complaint, opposed discrimination or helped an investigation. And the agencies that register apprenticeship programs will no longer investigate discrimination complaints and issue written findings themselves. Under the new rule, they refer those complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or another enforcement agency.

## The department's reasoning, checked

The department called the training requirement "unduly burdensome" and the anti-retaliation rule "largely redundant of existing Federal protections and therefore unnecessary." It said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act already bans workplace harassment and retaliation, and that those protections are "sufficiently robust."

That is half-true. Title VII does ban harassment and retaliation. But it covers only employers with [15 or more employees](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2000e?ref=workersrights.news), while the old apprenticeship rule applied to every sponsor regardless of size. And the department conceded in the rule that it has seen reports showing harassment drives apprentices out of programs. It said it lacked data proving that required training fixes the problem.

The rule rests on President Trump's January 2025 executive order "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity," which it cites as a directive to remove such requirements.

## Who this hits

Women and Black workers remain a small share of apprentices. Commenters cited in the rule said women make up 14.3% of apprentices but 47.1% of the labor force, and Black workers 9% of apprentices but 12.3% of the workforce. One commenter said women apprentices earn 63.4% of what men earn, and another said 57.9% of tradeswomen who reported harassment or discrimination to someone in authority felt their concerns were not addressed.

The department's own numbers show what happened after the 2016 update. Women in apprenticeship grew 3.1% a year from 2006 to 2015, then 12.3% a year from 2016 to 2025\. The department said that jump may reflect other trends, not its rules.

The department received 372 comments on the proposal. Of those, 311 were part of a form letter campaign.

The rule is the latest in a series of Trump administration moves to pull back federal civil rights guardrails at work. WorkersRights.News has reported on the EEOC's vote to [scrap background-check protections](https://www.workersrights.news/eeoc-rescinds-criminal-record-hiring-guidance/) and its plans to [drop guidelines that police unfair hiring tests](https://www.workersrights.news/eeoc-scraps-hiring-test-guidelines-four-fifths-rule/), and a plan to [trim pregnant worker protections](https://www.workersrights.news/trump-eeoc-pregnant-workers-rule-rewrite-november/).

## What comes next

The rule takes effect Jan. 5\. State apprenticeship agencies then have one year to submit plans showing their own rules conform.

Apprentices who face harassment or retaliation can still file a charge with the EEOC. The deadline is generally [180 days from the last incident](https://www.eeoc.gov/time-limits-filing-charge?ref=workersrights.news), or 300 days in states with their own enforcement agency. Write down what happened and when, and keep copies of any complaints you make to your program.

### Sources

- [Prohibiting Illegal Discrimination in Registered Apprenticeship Programs, final rule (2026-22680)](https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-22680.pdf?ref=workersrights.news), U.S. Department of Labor, Federal Register
- [DOL final rule revamps antidiscrimination requirements for apprenticeships](https://www.hrdive.com/news/dol-proposes-revamp-of-discrimination-practices-in-apprenticeships/873924/?ref=workersrights.news), HR Dive
- [42 U.S. Code § 2000e, definitions](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2000e?ref=workersrights.news), Cornell Legal Information Institute
- [Time Limits for Filing a Charge](https://www.eeoc.gov/time-limits-filing-charge?ref=workersrights.news), U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission