OFCCP Week In Review: March 4, 2019

The DE OFCCP Week in Review (WIR) is a simple, fast and direct summary of relevant happenings in the OFCCP regulatory environment, authored by experts John C. Fox, Candee Chambers and Jennifer Polcer. In today’s edition, they discuss:

• OFCCP’s Silicon Valley Tech Town Hall Revealed Many New OFCCP Initiatives
• EEO-1 Survey Opening Date To File Announced
• Trump Nominees To Testify
• Update: OFCCP Key Personnel Changes
• Reminder: Invitation to All Employees to Self-ID Disability

Tuesday, February 26, 2019: OFCCP’s Silicon Valley Tech Town Hall Revealed Many New OFCCP Initiative

John C. Fox was in attendance at the Silicon Valley Tech Town Hall and brings us this exclusive!

OFCCP Director Craig Leen brought his senior staff from Washington D.C., along with representatives of the USDOL’s Women’s Bureau and the Office of Disability Employment Policy (“ODEP”) to listen to Contractors from the Tech community speak their minds. Speaking extemporaneously but carefully to start the dialogue, Director Leen, however, said a lot himself. Director Leen spoke often and made himself available to the audience for the full day. With so many new developments, this Week In Review provides high-level insight into the new OFCCP initiatives with a Member-exclusive executive summary found in the DE Connect community:

1. New OFCCP Compliance Evaluation Selection Targeting System Coming
2. The Trump OFCCP Is Not “Soft On Crime”
3. Promotion Investigations Coming
4. Coming OFCCP Focused Review Investigation Procedures Revealed
5. “Centralized Accommodations Systems” Highly Recommended

Non-Members interested in learning more about the new OFCCP initiatives discussed during the recent Town Hall can gain access by completing the following form: [form removed]

Wednesday, February 27, 2019: EEO-1 Survey Opening Date to File Announced

Dr. Rashida Dorsey, the EEOC’s Director of the Data Development and Information Products Division, announced both that the opening date for employers to begin to file their 2018 EEO-1 Survey responses would be the third week of March 2019 and that the EEOC would announce the specific opening date in the coming days. Dr. Dorsey made her remarks in response
to questions during the EEOC’s webinar titled, Modernizing EEOC Surveys, Data, And Analytics: A New Day For Data At EEOC.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019: Trump Nominees to Testify

The Senate placed several of President Trump’s nominations on the Senate Executive Calendar. Nominees must now commit to respond to requests to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of the Senate. 

Department of Labor (“DOL”) Nominees:

• South Carolina attorney Cheryl Stanton to be the Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division.
• Former FedEx official Scott Mugno to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”).
• John P. Pallasch, to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor.
• John Lowry III, to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training.
• William Beach, to be Commissioner of Labor Statistics.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”):

• Janet Dhillon, to be a Member of the Commission.

Update: OFCCP Key Personnel Changes

National Office: While several individuals continue to wear two
hats at the National Office of OFCCP (i.e. headquarters), there
are a few new personnel moves to note: Marika Litras is now the Deputy Director. She was formally OFCCP’s Director of Enforcement. Robert LaJeunesse, PhD., is the Branch Chief for Expert Analysis and now also serves in a second job as the Acting Director of Enforcement to replace Marika Litras following her
transitionto the Deputy position.

San Francisco Region: Melissa Speer, OFCCP Regional Director in Dallas for the SWARM Region (Southwest and Rocky Mountain Region) is now also the Acting Regional Administrator for the OFCCP Pacific Region headquartered in San Francisco following the resignation of Jeanette Whipper last year to become the General Counsel of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Commission.

OFCCP has completed interviews and a selection could be announced at any time.

Chicago Region: Carmen Navarro continues to be the Acting OFCCP Director for the Chicago Region. The Regional Director position has not yet been filled because OFCCP had to re-post the position.

Reminder: Invitation to All Employees to Self-ID Disability

OFCCP regulations require covered Government Contractors to extend a so-called “invitation” of the OFCCP’s design to self-id as an idividual with a disability (or having had a disability) to ALL employees both within the first year and every (5) five years
from the initial year the the contractor became subject to the amended regulation. Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, instituted the requirment of the self-identification
process effective on and after March 24, 2014. OFCCP’s 2014 new Section 503 Rules required covered contractors to begin their self-identification campaigns with the start of their next Section 503 Affirmative Action Plan (“AAP”) cycle after March 24, 2014 when the new invitation requirements first became applicable to the contractor (see 41 CFR Section 60-741.42(c)) and then again every five years.

For additional assistance on Section 503, see OFCCP’s FAQ’s.

THIS COLUMN IS MEANT TO ASSIST IN A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE CURRENT LAW AND PRACTICE RELATING TO OFCCP. IT IS NOT TO BE REGARDED AS LEGAL ADVICE. COMPANIES OR INDIVIDUALS WITH PARTICULAR QUESTIONS SHOULD SEEK ADVICE OF COUNSEL.