So, it has begun.  The confirmation process for now OFCCP Director Craig Leen‘s move out of OFCCP and into the Inspector General of Office of Personnel Management initiated with a hearing before the full committee of the Department of Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.  In an unexpected turn of events, Director Leen was nominated by President Donald Trump for the Inspector General position earlier this year. While the confirmation process will need to…

OFCCP announced today it has received approval of a modified Self-Identification form for individuals with disabilities.  One of the biggest changes is the form is now one page, instead of two. OFCCP requested approval of the modified form from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last year. With this approval, OFCCP is giving contractors until August 4, 2020 to implement use of the new form in its applicant tracking and employee processes. The Agency…

EEOC has announced there will be no EEO-1 reporting obligation in 2020. In a press release, EEOC acknowledged it will delay the anticipated opening of the 2019 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection and the 2020 EEO-3 and EEO-5 data collections because of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency. The announcement stated that [p]ending approval from the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) the EEOC would expect to…

As anticipated, but with little fanfare, OFCCP has published a VEVRAA Focused Review landing page.  Much like the page it created for Section 503 Individuals with Disabilities Focused Reviews, the Agency’s veterans technical assistance page provides FAQs and Best Practices. With the recent approval of the VEVRAA Scheduling Letter and the release of this technical assistance we can likely anticipate OFCCP will in the near future start initiating the VEVRAA Focused Reviews from…

In the third of three new Directives (Directive (DIR) 2020-04), OFCCP has formalized and clarified the role of the Ombudsman in facilitating resolution of conflict between contractors and OFCCP. The Ombuds Service Protocol, among other important clarifications to Directive (DIR) 2018–09, states: The mission of the Ombuds Service is to offer an impartial and independent perspective to conflicts between external stakeholders and OFCCP, providing a neutral and, to the extent permitted…

In the second of the three most recent OFCCP Directives, OFCCP has formalized a pre-referral mediation program “to provide the best opportunity for resolving matters before significant time and resources are spent in the enforcement process,” and prior to referring the case for enforcement to the Office of the Solicitor (SOL). Directive (DIR) 2020-03 dictates or suggests the nuts and bolts for the mediation process: The Program is available only where OFCCP has issued…

Under 41 CFR 60-300.45, OFCCP must publish the “national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force” for contractors to use as a “hiring benchmark.”  OFCCP’s initial veteran hiring benchmark (in 2014) was 7.2% .   Every year since, this percentage of available veterans has decreased.   This year, the veteran hiring benchmark decreased again – from 5.9% to 5.7%. So, for contractors who elect not to calculate their own hiring benchmark,…