OFCCP Week in Review: October 2, 2017

The NLRB has five members appointed by the president to five-year terms–three members from the president’s party, and two from the opposing party.

• William Emanuel was confirmed by the Senate on Monday, September 25, 2017. His confirmation came on the heels of the confirmation of Marvin Kaplan (R) in August. Kaplan was the second nomination to the NLRB made by Trump. (See OFCCP Week in Review: August 7, 2017)

He succeeds Kent Y. Hirozawa, who served on the Board from August 5, 2013 to August 27, 2016

The Board now has, for the first time since President George W. Bush, a Republican-led majority.

To Be Confirmed:

• General Counsel: Peter Robb, a Vermont attorney, nominated by He would replace Obama appointee Richard Griffin Jr. At the NLRB, the general counsel serves as a sort of prosecutor, selecting cases that could set new precedents; it was Griffin who took the lead on altering the board’s definition of joint employment. Robb’s confirmation hearing is set for Oct. 4.

Department of Labor

To Be Confirmed:

• Patrick Pizella for Deputy Labor Secretary.

Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)

• Director: No news on a nomination yet…

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

To Be Confirmed: Pushed back due to a “scheduling problem.”

• Janet Dhillon to Chair the EEOC (see OFCCP Week in Review: July 3, 2017)
• Daniel Gade for Commissioner seat (see OFCCP Week in Review: August 7, 2017)
• General Counsel: To be determined…

The format followed the first (See OFCCP Week in Review: September 25, 2017) with attendees asked to brainstorm ways that the OFCCP could provide more compliance assistance to federal contractors and subcontractors. Once ideas were generated, attendees worked in groups to determine how these initiatives could be put into place.

During the wrap-up, attendees were asked to indicate their top three choices of action items given the ideas generated throughout the morning.

Acting Director Tom Dowd opened the session and shared a few statistics and comments before breaking out into smaller groups:

• 80% of contractors do not submit AAPs within 30 days of the compliance evaluation and OFCCP is trying to understand why: Is this because employers do not have AAPs prepared? Is the data inaccurate?
• US government annually spends $500-700 billion annually on goods & services, but only selects 1-3% of contractors for compliance review.
• Proposal of OFCCP hosting 2-3 day contractor training with exemption from compliance review scheduling for a period of time (1-2 years)–which Debra Carr also discussed at NILG in August (See OFCCP Week in Review: August 7, 2017)

The rest of the morning was facilitated by Kevin Powell and was highly interactive. The same two questions from the D.C. town hall were presented to the group:

• What are some creative, innovative ideas for making OFCCP existing compliance assistance more practical?
• What are some ideas and thoughts for new ways that OFCCP can help make compliance assistance more collaborative?

After the group discussion of these topics, smaller breakout groups formed to brainstorm further and then present to the room. At the end of the session, all attendees were asked to “vote” on the ideas the group liked most.

Some of the prominent themes that came out of this session were:

• A needed focus on improving communication and training from the OFCCP and the compliance officers.
• Online training sessions – such as live webinars – or other training sessions where the OFCCP would elect contractors to facilitate and present best practices in partnership with OFCCP.
• A contractor community or portal (similar to the DE Community) where contractors could share ideas, network, and interact with compliance officers.

In the initial town hall held in D.C, a request included that after the final session, OFCCP be transparent about the feedback and their plans moving forward.

“We’ve given you our ideas and suggestions, the worst thing you can do at this point is nothing.” stated Candee Chambers. To which acting Director Tomas Dowd acknowledged and assured the group that there would be follow-up to the public after the conclusion of the final session.

More to come!