As we are preparing for a change in leadership at OFCCP, the Agency has published its first Section 503 Focused Reviews Annual Report and issued Section 503 Certificates of Merit. As many are aware, OFCCP Director Craig Leen is passionate about fighting for and protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities and, as such,
Laura A. Mitchell is a Principal in the Denver, Colorado, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. She is a member of the firm’s Affirmative Action and OFCCP Defense practice group as well as the firm’s Pay Equity Resource Group. She is also on the leadership team for the firm’s Government Contractor Industry Group.
Her practice is focused on representing government and non-government contractors in OFCCP matters, preparing for and defending OFCCP audits, and counseling employers on issues stemming from OFCCP regulations. Ms. Mitchell personally oversees the development of hundreds of AAPs each year and is intimately involved in the defense of numerous OFCCP audits. She also spends significant time counseling companies in connection with conducting pay equity analyses as well as government contractor employment obligations.
Ms. Mitchell is the editor and a principal contributor of The Affirmative Action Law Advisor blog and frequently presents on pay equity, affirmative action compliance, OFCCP enforcement trends, and government contractor obligations.
EEOC Announces Scheduled Opening of EEO-1 Reporting Portal for April 2021
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
OFCCP Issues Opinion Letter Explaining Application of Executive Order 11246 Religious Exemption
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
OFCCP Extends Comment Deadline for Annual AAP Certification Proposal
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
Court Order Stops Enforcement of President Trump’s Executive Order on Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping
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
OFCCP Issues Directive on Fourth Agency Pillar of Certainty
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
OFCCP Publishes Small Contractor Technical Assistance Guide
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
OFCCP Publishes Final Regulation Clarifying Religious Exemption Under Executive Order 11246
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
EEOC Launches Searchable Database of Aggregated EEO-1 Data
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
UPDATE: Race and Sex Stereotyping Notice Provision Now Available for Inclusion in New Contracts
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