The White House has proposed merging the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), purportedly to reduce redundancies in civil rights enforcement. Some prominent members of the federal contracting compliance community think the proposal is DOA (Dead On Arrival) due to opposition from the civil rights community, federal contractor coalitions, and key in...

In August 2013, Adverse Impact (AI) analysis received one of the most important judicial clarifications rendered since its formal Supreme Court codification in 1971. Administrative Law Judge Kenneth A. Krantz ruled in favor of VF Jeanswear (VF) and denied OFCCP’s request for summary judgment against VF. In his decision, Judge Krantz formally clarified and articulated a judicial position on methods of grouping races for...

Providing effective accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities can benefit federal contractors in many ways. First, there is compliance with legal requirements; Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act requires federal contractors to provide reasonable accommodations. Then there are the business reasons; providing accommodations produces low cost, high impact benefits such as retention of valued employee...

Like I said, I am all about technology. It is essential to make your systems work for you instead of fighting to gather and analyze employee data. However, making the move to an HR system for the first time or moving systems isn’t without its issues; therefore, here are a few affirmative action compliance items to keep in mind: recordkeeping requirements, viewing and access to data, what to do with the originals, acce...

The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963. That same year, the Beatles wanted to hold your hand, President Kennedy was assassinated, and women were earning 59 to 64 cents for every dollar earned by men working the same jobs. Over 50 years later, the gender pay gap still exists. Although there has been progress, women today still only earn about 79 to 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. For women of color, the pay gap...

Adverse Impact Analysis: Aggregation of Races Topic: AAP In August 2013, Adverse Impact (AI) analysis received one of the most important judicial clarifications rendered since its formal Supreme Court codification in 1971. Administrative Law Judge Kenneth A. Krantz ruled in favor of VF Jeanswear (VF) and denied OFCCP’s...more...

Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 503), 29 USC § 793, prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment against individuals with disabilities and requires these employers to take affirmative action, including making reasonable accommodations, to recruit, hire, promote, and retain these individuals. Similarly, the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act, a...

In late May, the Trump administration released its detailed FY2018 budget, which proposes a $2 billion (20%) cut to the funding for the Department of Labor (DOL). While these initial forays into the federal government budgetary process are often described as “dead on arrival,” presidents’ budget proposals can provide a glimpse into administrations’ policy priorities, and in that way, often act as the “opening bid” in t...

Trump Administration Proposes Merger of EEOC and OFCCP as Part of 2018 Budget Topic: OFCCP When the Trump administration released its proposed budget for the upcoming federal fiscal year, the budget contained a proposal for a major change involving two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights agencies, the Equal Employment O...

One of the most concerning challenges faced by human resource professionals today is balancing confidential employee data with the ever-growing requirements subject to Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) enforcement. This struggle grew more cloudy with the enactment of the additional obligations of companies to solicit disability information from individuals applying for jobs, additional data required b...