As previously reported, the Trump Administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018 includes a plan to merge the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) into the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). Pragmatically, this would add the OFCCP’s broad responsibilities to an already overburdened EEOC, without providing the EEOC any additional funding to accomplish its newly added workload. On June 7, 2017, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta testified at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in…

This week, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) issued three proposed rules expanding data security and privacy requirements for contractors and subcontractors. The proposed rules build upon other recent efforts by various federal agencies to strengthen safeguarding requirements for sensitive government information.  Given the increasing emphasis on data security and privacy, contractors and subcontractors are well advised to familiarize themselves with these new requirements and undertake a careful review of their current data security and…

On January 4, 2017, the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP) sued Google, claiming that the tech giant is illegally withholding information about the compensation it provides its employees.  OFCCP seeks the information as part of an ongoing review of Google’s compliance with the various equal protection laws enforced by the OFCCP.…

We have previously written about the updated sex discrimination guidelines recently published by OFCCP. Among other mandates, the guidelines require federal government contractors to provide paternity leave on an equal basis to maternity leave.  The guidelines also prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sex-based stereotypes, such as whether an individual dresses in conformity with their gender. These guidelines take effect Monday, August 15, 2016. Before then, federal government contractors should review their employee handbooks…