On June 27, Patricia Shiu,  OFCCP Director, gave the key-note speech at the National Employment Lawyers Association’s 2013 Annual Convention.  In a portion of her remarks, Director Shiu referred to two U.S. Supreme Court decisions from this term – Vance v. Ball, which narrowly defined “supervisor” for Title VII purposes, and University of Texas Southwest Medic al Center v. Nassar, which held Title VII retaliation claims are subject to a more demanding standard of proof – as “pretty big setbacks in defending employee rights” that left advocates with the choice to either “curl up” and surrender or “join together and start planning the next chapter in the advancement of worker’s rights”.

Interestingly, but not all that surprisingly, Director Shiu went on to explain OFCCP, EEOC, and the Department of Justice are aligned with plaintiffs and employee advocates and believe that the role of these agencies is not to “simply enforce” but to actively “bend the arch of the law” in the right direction.

Director Shiu’s remarks reinforce recent actions by OFCCP to enhance and strengthen the Agency’s enforcement abilities and are certainly in line with its recent aggressive stance on pay discrimination, including rescinding the 2006 compensation guidelines and issuing Directive 307 with it’s broad and flexible analytical approach.