OFCCP Week In Review: January 29, 2018

by | Jan 29, 2018 | Week In Review (WIR)

The 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:

 

 

EEOC Released Fiscal Year 2017 Enforcement & Litigation Data

Thursday, January 25, 2018
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that 84,254 workplace discrimination charges were filed with the federal agency nationwide during fiscal year (FY) 2017, and that they secured $398 million for victims in the private sector and state and local government work­places through voluntary resolutions and litigation. Enforcement and litigation statistics for FY 2017, which ended Sept. 30, 2017, can be found here.

We summarized their year-end press release highlights in the OFCCP Week in Review: November 13, 2017.

Charge numbers:

Alleged Charge Type Number of Charges Percent of Total Charges
Retaliation 41,097 48.8%
Race 28,528 33.9%
Disability 26,838 31.9%
Sex* 25,605 30.4%
Age 18,376 21.8%
National Origin 8,299 9.8%
Religion 3,436 4.1%
Color 3,240 3.8%
Equal Pay Act 996 1.2%
Genetic Information 206 .2%

* Includes 6,696 sexual harassment charges and $46.3 million in monetary benefits for victims of sexual harassment.

These percentages add up to more than 100 because some charges allege multiple bases.

EEOC legal staff filed 184 merits lawsuits alleging discrimination. This included:

  • 124 individual suits
  • 30 suits involving multiple victims or discrimin­atory policies
  • 30 systemic discrimination cases.

At the end of the fiscal year, the EEOC had 242 cases on its active federal court docket. The EEOC achieved a successful outcome in 90.8 percent of all lawsuit resolutions.

 

DOL Released Fiscal Year 2017 Agency Financial Report

Friday, January 26, 2018
The 212-page report, “provides fiscal data and summary performance results that enable the President, Congress, and the American people to assess the Department’s accomplishments…”

To make your assessment of the OFCCP, the report provides the following information:

Looking back. The OFCCP:

  • Has jurisdiction over nearly 200,000 federal contractor establishments.
  • Since 2009, has refocused its efforts almost exclusively from systemic hiring discrimination on the basis of sex or race in low-wage jobs to systemic compensation discrimination.
  • Gradually reduced its case production to focus on fewer, but more complex high quality cases that span a wide variety of industries and job occupations.
  • Invested in training front-line compliance officers and managers.

FY 2017 results. The OFCCP:

  • Closed 1,142 compliance evaluations
  • Secured $23.9 million in financial remedies for 11,653 victims of discrimination
  • Completed 79% of construction evaluations from high-impact construction projects that have a significant employment and economic impact on communities across the country. (Possible reference to the OFCCP’s Mega Construction Project (MCP) Program).
  • Against a 95% target, 93% of the compliance evaluations were free of major deficiencies that could otherwise impact the ability to identify discrimination or failure to engage in affirmative action.

Looking forward. In FY 2018, the OFCCP will:

  • Rebalance the mix of scheduling and conducting compliance evaluations, and delivering compliance assistance.
  • Explore new ways and launch new initiatives to encourage all contractors to voluntarily meet their mandatory compliance obligations.
  • Seek to implement a scheduling process for compliance evaluations that focuses on industries or sectors that have a greater likelihood of having compliance issues.
  • [Ensure that] when compliance evaluations are conducted, they will be efficient and thorough, and appropriately transparent.

This report is done in accordance with the requirements of the Office of Budget and Management’s Circular A-136, regarding “Financial Reporting Requirements.”

 

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.

Reminder: If you have specific OFCCP compliance questions and/or concerns or wish to offer suggestions about future topics for the OFCCP Week In Review, please contact your membership representative at (866) 268-6206 (for DirectEmployers Association Members), or email Jennifer at jpolcer@directemployers.org with your ideas.

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