As the effective date for OFCCP’s new veterans and disability regulations nears, the Agency continues to present webinars, publish FAQs and provide other guidance in the hopes of clarifying what remains a less than a clear picture of these new obligations.  Despite the OFCCP’s laudable attempts, employers are still searching for answers as March 24th rapidly approaches.

With that in mind, come join me for a webinar on the new regulations where you will get practical tips and tools to help in making important decisions about implementation and compliance in the face of these groundbreaking new obligations.  The webinar will take place Monday, February 24, 2014  from 2-4 Eastern..   To learn more about the webinar and to register, click here.  Hope you can make it.

This may be considered attorney advertising in some states.

As he promised in his State of the Union address, President Obama has signed an Executive Order increasing the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10 an hour.  The Order is effective for new or modified contracts entered into after January 1, 2015.

As part of the Order, the President tasked the Secretary of Labor with issuing regulations implementing the terms of the Executive Order.  The Secretary has until October 1, 2014 to issue the regulations.  The regulations should detail the Department of Labor’s enforcment procedures as well as shed additional light on the types of contracts and employees covered by the new order.

We will continue to provide updates as additional information becomes available so make sure to stay tuned.

On the final day of January, OFCCP mailed over 2,100 Corporate Scheduling Announcement Letters to more than 830 employers across the country. The “CSALs,” which provide employers with advance notice of locations slated for audits, started arriving in mailboxes this week. And OFCCP began initiating actual audits immediately. During these audits, OFCCP will:

  •  vigorously investigate employer compensation systems in line with the Agency’s recently published Directive 307
  •  continue to closely scrutinize employer hiring, promotion and termination practices
  • evaluate employers’ affirmative action efforts for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities (especially for audits initiated after the March 24, 2014 effective date for OFCCP’s new affirmative action regulations covering veterans and individuals with disabilities)

It is critical for employers to ensure they are ready to respond in this new wave of audits to the changed compliance environment.

Join us for a complimentary webinar as we explain OFCCP’s new enforcement initiatives, the Agency’s changing audit enforcement approach, and offer practical, proactive strategies to respond to the coming wave of audits.

The webinar will be pre-recorded and released on February 25th for review at your convenience.  Upon registration, participants will receive an e-mail with a link to the webinar.

 

OFCCP today held the next webinar in its “Moving Toward Compliance” series of public webinars providing assistance to the contractor community with implementation of the new Veterans and Section 503 regulations.  Today’s training focused on developing VEVRAA AAPs under the new regulations.  Upcoming trainings include guidance on listing job openings (Feb 20), and undstanding the new disabiltiy goal and veterans hiring benchmark (March 6).

Check the OFCCP’s webpage for registration and other informaiton regarding this training series.

As we alerted earlier this week, OFCCP has released a wave of  advance audit notice letters notifying facilities of their selection for impending review by the Agency.  In an uncommon step, OFCCP has released some details of its Fiscal Year 2014 audit Scheduling List, selection process.  Details include the following:

  • 856 contractors “made the list;”
  • OFCCP intends to audit 2,193 establishments;
  • 40 audits are intended to be “Glass Ceiling” audits (a.k.a. Corporate Management Compliance Evaluations), with no more than one assigned to any District Office; and
  • OFCCP has voluntarily decided to limit audits to 35 establishments per contractor.

Additional details and FAQs can be found at OFCCP’s Website.

As OFCCP likes to tout, these letters are a courtesy to contractors, permitting them to get their AAPs in order prior to an actual audit.  As such, we continue to emphasize the importance of notifying your locations to be on the lookout for these notices, sent directly to “Human Resources Director,” and instructing them to immediately forward the letters to corporate HR so the company can use the extra time before commencement of the audit.

As an update to our post last week – OFCCP has mailed out a wave of more than 2,100 advance audit notification letters to over 850 employers.  In a new twist, Jackson Lewis has learned OFCCP will “cap” the number of audits for any single employer at 35.

The letters are dated January 31, 2014 and started arriving in mailboxes today.  As it has done with the last two waves of these notifications, OFCCP mailed the letters directly to the establishment to be audited and addressed them generically to “Human Resources Director.”  Make sure your locations are on the look-out for these notices and understand the importance of forwarding them to the appropriate people immediately upon receipt.

As the contractor community prepares to implement some of the largest regulatory changes in the past two decades, Jackson Lewis has learned OFCCP plans to soon send out advance notification letters (CSALs) notifying employers of their selection for upcoming compliance reviews.  These letters do not initiate audits, but given employers notification that there establishment has been selected for impendng review.  While we do not know for sure how the letters will be adress, most recently OFCCP has sent these letters directly to the locations to be audited, addressed generically to “Human Resources Director.”

In light of everything going on at this time, its easy to see how these letters could be over looked or set aside.  Given OFCCP’s enforcment landscape, now, more than ever, it is critical that folks understand the importance of acting on these “heads up” letters as soon as they are received to start preparing for the impending OFCCP review.  Given this, make sure those in the field are on the look out for correspondece from the Agency.

As we learn more about this wave of letters we will pass the information along.  Stay tuned.

Earlier this month the NLRB  decided not to appeal two appellate court decisions invalidating the NLRB’s 2011 adoption of a rule requiring private sector employers to post notices advising employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.  The decision to allow this deadline to pass rendered the posting obligations “dead in the water” for non-federal contractors.

This latest development should not be confused with the obligation for federal contractors to give notice to employees of their union rights pursuant to Executive Order 13496.  The obligation under EO 13496 has not been affected by the NLRB’s decision to end its push for notice obligations for non-federal contractors.

With that said, as we reported at the end of 2013, a challenge to the EO 13496 obligations has been filed with the court.  There has been no action in that case since filing of the complaint.

Under OFCCP’s new 503 regulations covering individuals with disabilities, employers are required to use a form prescribed by OFCCP to solicit disability status of applicants and employees.  After receiving questions and input from contractors on an initial draft form, OFCCP has modified, and received approval of a final version of the form.

In response to feedback from the contractor community, OFCCP includes in the revised form an option for employees and applicants to indicate they are not disabled in addition to be able to decline to provide the requested information.  This addition addresses one of the major concerns employers had with the previous version that did not allow responders to affirmatively state they are not disabled.  The form also now contains a space for the individual to include their name.

Notably, however, the final form still contains the language from the initial version asking individuals not only to disclose if they have a disability but if they “ever had a disability.”  As we discussed previously, this raises a number of concerns.

Additionally, though the Agency seemingly streamlined the form, the final form is longer than the original version with the accommodation notice (which invites individuals to request an accommodation and provides accommodation examples) falling to a second page.

We anticipate OFCCP will continue to provide insight and guidance in connection with this, and the other new requirements, so stay tuned for updates.

This year the Colorado ILG has the pleasure of hosting the 2014 SWARM Regional ILG Conference.  The conference will take place April 29 – May 2 in Denver, Colorado.  Early bird registration for the conference ends January 31.st

Pam Coukos and other ILG and EEOC speakers will be featured presenters at the conference as well as myself and my JL colleague, Michelle Duncan.

Springtime in the Rockies is wonderful so I hope to see you in Denver in April!