Affirmative Action

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The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) has released its 2023 Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (“VEVRAA”) benchmark.  Effective March 31, 2023, the new benchmark is 5.4%, a slight decrease from 2022’s 5.5% benchmark.  This is OFCCP’s eighth reduction of the benchmark, which has steadily declined since its…

Updated on March 27, 2023 to include webinar details.

On March 20, 2023, OFCCP announced its Contractor Portal will open to receive Affirmative Action Program (“AAP”) certification submissions on March 31, 2023.  Certifications must be made by June 29, 2023.

OFCCP launched the Contractor Portal last year and required federal…

As we previously reported, OFCCP has received a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request seeking federal contractors’ and subcontractors’ (collectively, “Contractors”) EEO-1 reports from 2016-2020. After publishing a list of Contractors whose EEO-1 data would be released, OFCCP offered Contractors an opportunity to notify the agency if they were…

On January 20, 2023, OFCCP announced the release of the first Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL) of FY23. The list consists of 500 locations selected for a Compliance Review (Establishment Review), Corporate Management Compliance Evaluation, or Functional Affirmative Action Program Review.

Note that the list merely notifies these contractors that…

Earlier this week, the Seventh Circuit allowed a Caucasian construction worker to take his reverse racism claims to trial because there were factual disputes about the reason for his termination.

The plaintiff, Terry Deets, alleges that the defendant contractor laid him off because it was not meeting its federally mandated…

On October 23, 2015, a Department of Labor (“DOL”) administrative law judge (“ALJ”) ordered a government contractor, Convergys Customer Management Group, Inc. (“Convergys”), to submit its affirmative action program along with supporting data to DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) in connection with a desk audit. In so…

In the context of analyzing a Title VII Civil Rights and Massachusetts law “disparate impact” claim, a federal court has cast considerable doubt on the efficacy of statistical tools employed in “disparate impact” analysis.  In Pedro Lopez, et al. v. City of Lawrence, et al., the district court ruled…

OFCCP recently updated its Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) on the implementation of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (“VEVRAA”) and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act final rules.  The most recent FAQs address questions regarding the availability of the “EEO is the Law” poster, the ability to use human resource information systems as the data analysis file for self-identification records, and acceptable language for Equal Opportunity clauses. 

Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires specified federal agencies and departments, including the Treasury Department, to ensure fair inclusion and utilization of minorities, women, and minority-owned and women-owned businesses in all business and activities of the agency, including equal employment and affirmative action by contractors and subcontractors.  On March 20, 2014, the Treasury Department issued Final Rules implementing Section 342.  The Final Rule will go into effect on April 21.

Earlier this week the Department of Labor moved to remand Frito-Lay’s lawsuit seeking to block the production of employment data in connection with an OFCCP investigation into discrimination at its Dallas facility.  Frito-Lay, Inc. v. Department of Labor, 3:12-cv-01747 (N.D. Tex. 2012).  The resolution of this case may impact the scope of OFCCP’s authority to request documents from government contractors in compliance audits.