A labor union and two female prison employees filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing a U.S. civil rights agency of unlawfully halting their sexual harassment case as part of a broader order to indefinitely suspend proceedings in all federal-sector class claims.

The lawsuit says the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ordered an indefinite suspension of federal-sector class complaints pending before the agency’s administrative judges, who handle discrimination complaints from federal workers in a process separate from that used for private-sector workers. For federal employees, that process can be an important route for challenging workplace discrimination without having to start over in court.

The two women, correctional officers at a Louisiana federal prison, have a pending certified class complaint against the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They allege that prison management failed to prevent and correct widespread sexual harassment by inmates against female workers, including rape threats, unwanted touching and nudity. The women, Deanna Chelette and Alexzandria Boyd, are joined in the lawsuit by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers.

It is not clear why the EEOC issued the suspension directive, which the agency had not publicly disclosed, or how many other cases are affected. The EEOC referred questions to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment.

Under President Donald Trump, the EEOC has overhauled its civil rights enforcement priorities, including prioritizing cases aimed at stamping out diversity and inclusion policies, dropping cases on behalf of transgender workers and abandoning longstanding tools for investigating systemic discrimination. The changes have prompted several lawsuits against EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, who says she is pursuing an “even-handed” and “colorblind” vision of workplace civil rights.

But it is not clear how the order to suspend federal-sector class claims fits into the agency’s new priorities. In the court filing, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the EEOC offered “no reasoned explanation for a blanket policy that halts an entire category of discrimination cases.” The lawsuit seeks to have the suspension directive vacated.

“Without an explanation, it’s hard to infer what the EEOC’s intentions behind this were, but it’s hard to ignore that this is part of a broader campaign at the EEOC to undermine the ability of employees to protect rights that Congress has provided to them under the civil rights laws,” said Joseph Sellers, co-chair of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll’s civil rights and employment practice and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs.

The pending class complaint alleges that management at Louisiana’s Federal Correctional Complex at Pollock failed to stop inmates from subjecting female workers to sexual harassment. The complaint included declarations from eight other women who also described the harassment and management’s response, and estimated that the class complaint would include at least 182 women. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not respond to requests for comment.

According to the lawsuit against the EEOC, Administrative Judge Erania Ebron certified the class in March 2025. But in December, Ebron issued a notice saying the case had been paused until further notice.

Attorneys in the case argued that the suspension violates the EEOC’s own regulations governing complaints filed by federal workers, which require the agency to handle complaints promptly.

The lawsuit says that during the seven months the case has been halted, Chelette, Boyd and other women “have been subjected to, or are at risk of, ongoing and escalating sexual harassment that continues to go unremedied. They have no information about when, if ever, their case will continue.”

“Management is just sort of emboldened and taking even less corrective action, sending the message to the inmates that you can sexually harass and abuse these female staff and get away with it because we’re not going to do anything to do you,” said Heidi Burakiewicz, an attorney for the plaintiffs and founding partner at Burakiewicz & DePriest.

While it remains unclear how many cases the EEOC has paused, the attorneys who filed the lawsuit said they are representing federal workers in at least five other class complaints that are stalled, including cases against the FBI and the Department of Defense. That makes the dispute potentially significant beyond this prison case, because the court challenge could affect how other federal employees pursue class-wide discrimination claims.

The plaintiffs may opt out of the EEOC process and bring their case to federal court, but attorneys said that would require them to essentially build the case anew, including seeking class status from scratch in a process that could take years.

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AP Business Writer Claire Savage contributed to this story from Chicago.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com