The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that the collections for the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 Data that was postponed in 2020 will begin in April 2021. The noticed stated: The precise opening dates of the collections, as well as the new submission deadline dates, will be announced by posting a notice on the EEOC’s home page at www.eeoc.gov as well as on the new dedicated website for the agency’s EEO…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

OFCCP Issues Opinion Letter Explaining Application of Executive Order 11246 Religious Exemption

By Laura A. Mitchell & F. Christopher Chrisbens

January 12, 2021

Following on the heels of its final rule clarifying the religious exemption found at Section 204(3) of Executive Order (EO) 11246 and codified at 41 C.F.R. 60-1.5(a)(5) (the Exemption), OFCCP this week issued an Opinion Letter addressing the scope of the Exemption. Specifically, the Opinion Letter provides insights on “six possible religious discrimination scenarios.” As a reminder, federal contractors are prohibited from discriminating based on religion and national origin and must provide appropriate religious accommodations,…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

OFCCP Extends Comment Deadline for Annual AAP Certification Proposal

By Laura A. Mitchell & F. Christopher Chrisbens

January 4, 2021

OFCCP has published a notice in the Federal Register extending the public comment period on its proposal to require federal contractors to submit an annual certification of their AAP compliance. The new comment deadline is January 28, 2021. While this notice does not state the reason for the extension, it appears the Agency received only 15 comments by the November 13, 2020 deadline. As reflected in OFCCP’s original notice, it seeks regulatory authority to:…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

Court Order Stops Enforcement of President Trump’s Executive Order on Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping

By Laura A. Mitchell & F. Christopher Chrisbens

December 23, 2020

Since it was issued in September 2020, Executive Order 13950 – Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping has been a source of controversy and criticism. Speculation as to the fate of the Executive Order in the future Biden/Harris administration has accelerated in recent weeks with talks of rescission and legal challenges. While we await the ultimate fate of the Order, a federal district court entered a nationwide preliminary injunction stopping the administration from enforcing Executive Order…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

OFCCP Issues Directive on Fourth Agency Pillar of Certainty

By Laura A. Mitchell & F. Christopher Chrisbens

December 15, 2020

OFCCP issued today the last of a series of Directives aimed at defining the Agency’s enforcement relationship with federal contractors – this Directive 2021-02 focuses on providing federal contractors “Certainty” when interacting with the Agency. Since he took the leadership role, OFCCP Director Craig Leen has focused on providing federal contractors with “four pillars” on which they can rely in interactions with OFCCP: Certainty, Efficiency, Recognition and Transparency – the “CERT” principles. The CERT…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

OFCCP Publishes Small Contractor Technical Assistance Guide

By Laura A. Mitchell & F. Christopher Chrisbens

December 9, 2020

Rounding out the Agency’s efforts to beef up its Technical Assistance Guides (TAGs) for different types of federal contractors, OFCCP recently published a “Small Contractor” TAG. TAGs can be helpful resources for both new and experienced federal contractors, and the aim of this TAG is to guide those small contractors with limited resources through the maze of affirmative action obligations. In particular, the Small Contractor TAG provides guidance for contractors with supply or service…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

OFCCP Publishes Final Regulation Clarifying Religious Exemption Under Executive Order 11246

By Laura A. Mitchell & F. Christopher Chrisbens

December 8, 2020

As anticipated, on December 7, 2020, OFCCP published on its Website a lengthy final rule clarifying the religious exemption found at Section 204(3) of Executive Order (EO) 11246 and codified at 41 C.F.R. 60-1.5(a)(5) (the Exemption). The purpose of this final rule is to clarify the contours of the E.O. 11246 religious exemption and the related obligations of federal contractors and subcontractors to ensure that OFCCP respects religious employers’ free exercise rights, protects workers from…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

EEOC Launches Searchable Database of Aggregated EEO-1 Data

By Laura A. Mitchell

December 4, 2020

In December 2018, the EEOC created the Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA). Since its inception, the OEDA has been working on modernizing EEO data availability. On December 2, 2020 EEOC launched EEOC Explore, which aggregates publicly available EEO-1 data (currently limited to EEO-1 data sets from 2017 and 2018) into a series of interactive dashboards. Our Data Analytics Group shares its thoughts on EEOC Explore in a recent Data Intelligence Reporter …

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

UPDATE: Race and Sex Stereotyping Notice Provision Now Available for Inclusion in New Contracts

By Laura A. Mitchell & F. Christopher Chrisbens

December 3, 2020

The Department of Defense has published a Memo and provided the Clause which its contracting agencies are now required to include in new contracts after the November 21, 2020 effective date of Executive Order 13950 – Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping. The notice identifies this as a “class deviation” that is “effective immediately” and “remains in effect until it is incorporated in the FAR or otherwise rescinded.” As a reminder, section 4 of the…

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

OFCCP Final Rule For Procedures to Resolve Potential Employment Discrimination Published

By Laura A. Mitchell

November 10, 2020

As we previewed last week, OFCCP’s rule codifying procedures for resolving allegations of potential discrimination through the use of a Pre-Determination Notice (PDN) or Notice of Violation (NOV) has been officially published in the Federal Register. The main purpose of rule is to codify practices to “provide contractors with greater certainty” about the procedures OFCCP follows during compliance evaluations. Some of these procedures were previously were imbedded in the sub-regulatory Federal Contractor Compliance …

Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor

A source of insights, news and strategy on affirmative action and EEO compliance matters

Blog Authors

EEOC Announces Scheduled Opening of EEO-1 Reporting Portal for April 2021

OFCCP Issues Opinion Letter Explaining Application of Executive Order 11246 Religious Exemption

OFCCP Extends Comment Deadline for Annual AAP Certification Proposal

Court Order Stops Enforcement of President Trump’s Executive Order on Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping

OFCCP Issues Directive on Fourth Agency Pillar of Certainty

OFCCP Publishes Small Contractor Technical Assistance Guide

OFCCP Publishes Final Regulation Clarifying Religious Exemption Under Executive Order 11246

EEOC Launches Searchable Database of Aggregated EEO-1 Data

UPDATE: Race and Sex Stereotyping Notice Provision Now Available for Inclusion in New Contracts

OFCCP Final Rule For Procedures to Resolve Potential Employment Discrimination Published

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