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OFCCP launches contractor portal initiating AAP verification program

December 14, 2021 By Nancy Cleveland

On December 2, 2021, OFCCP announced the launch of its new “Contractor Portal,” which “[c]overed federal contractors and subcontractors (“contractors”) must use … to certify, on an annual basis, whether they have developed and maintained an affirmative action program for each establishment and/or functional unit, as applicable.”

The Contractor Portal will also serve as a “secure portal for scheduled contractors to submit to OFCCP their Affirmative Action Program(s) during compliance evaluations.”

This development has been years in the making, initiated by a 2016 GAO report criticizing OFCCP for having no process for ensuring contractors were preparing their affirmative action programs (“AAPs”) annually, and comes over three years after former Director Craig Leen announced OFCCP’s intention to create an AAP verification program.

Continue reading at:  JD Supra

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: affirmative action, EEO-1, OFCCCP

Something old, something new: Contractor recognition and AAP verification on the horizon at OFCCP

October 3, 2018 By Nancy Cleveland

On August 24, 2018, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued three new directives, 2018-05, 2018-06, and 2018-07.   While directive 2018-05 has received most of the attention because it focuses on reviewing a contractor’s compensation practices during a compliance evaluation, directives 2018-06 and 2018-07 should not go unnoticed.

During OFCCP Town Hall Meetings earlier this year, contractors suggested a return to recognition programs such as the Exemplary Voluntary Efforts (EVE) Award or the Secretary of Labor’s Opportunity Award. Both programs were instituted in the late 1980s to recognize federal contractors for exemplary efforts in advancing fair employment practices and programs. Both programs were ultimately rescinded in 2013.

Recognizing that awards and recognition programs may incentivize contractor compliance, the OFCCP issued directive 2018-06 titled, “Contractor Recognition Program.”  While short on details, the directive describes several tools and resources under development:

  • A contractor recognition program that highlights implementable best or model contractor practices;
  • A contractor mentoring program that uses contractors to help their peers improve compliance; and
  • Other initiatives that provide opportunities for contractors to collaborate or provide feedback to OFCCP on its compliance assistance efforts.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=732786

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: AAP, affirmative action, compliance, contract compliance, DOL, equal opportunity, OFCCP, voluntary compliance

Moody AFB contractor sued over equal opportunity reporting

December 30, 2015 By Nancy Cleveland

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has filed a lawsuit to require Convergys Customer Management Group Inc. to submit documents detailing its affirmative action plans for company facilities in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

OFCCPFiled with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges, the suit requires Convergys to provide the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) with all documents and information requested, cooperate with scheduled compliance reviews and fully comply with the requirements of all laws enforced by the agency.

If the company fails to comply, the department seeks to cancel the company’s current federal contracts and ban Convergys from future federal contracting.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2015/12/15/convergys-sued-shunning-employment-probe/77371696/

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: affirmative action, compliance, DOL, EEO, equal opportunity, federal contracting, Labor Dept., OFCCP

Responding to a scheduling letter from the OFCCP: Little things matter

September 23, 2015 By Nancy Cleveland

It is the Tuesday after a long holiday weekend, and you are faithfully going through the pile of mail on your desk when you spy an envelope from the United States Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

OFCCPaffYou open the envelope and, sure enough, your facility has been selected for a compliance review under Executive Order 11246, the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act, and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.  Which of the following most accurately describes your response?

  1. Hot dog! I finally get to do something with those affirmative action plans I have been patiently preparing for years!
  2. Story of my life . . . any time I take a long weekend, I always return to bad news.
  3. An OFCCP audit?  Someone turn off the lights so I can curl up and cry in the corner.

Regardless of which response you chose, before you respond to the OFCCP, there are several things you should do to increase your chances of a successful audit outcome.

Read the six things you should do at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=425852

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: affirmative action, audit, DOL, E.O. 11246, labor laws, OFCCP

Don’t get burned by this summer’s OFCCP enforcement

August 27, 2014 By ei2admin

While federal contractors may have been looking forward to having a summer break from new affirmative action regulations and related enforcement activities, President Obama and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP) have had other ideas.

Indeed, President Obama and the OFCCP have turned up the heat on federal contractors this summer by: (1) issuing a slew of new executive orders and other regulations that exponentially increase their compliance obligations, and (2) sending out a second wave of corporate scheduling announcement letters advising of future compliance audits.

Keep reading this article at: http://californiaemploymentlaw.foxrothschild.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2014/08/OFCCP_article.pdf

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: affirmative action, audit, compensation, Davis-Bacon Act, DOL, enforcement, equal opportunity, equal pay, Executive Order, OFCCP, subcontracting

Federal contractors’ hiring goal for veterans took effect March 24

March 31, 2014 By ei2admin

Effective March 24, 2014, contractors required by the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) to develop a written affirmative action program (AAP) must also establish a hiring benchmark for protected veterans each year or adopt the national benchmark provided by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).  Federal contractors use the VEVRAA Benchmark Database when establishing a hiring benchmark for protected veterans as required by 41 CFR 60-300.45.

Contractors must compare the percentage of employees who are protected veterans in each of their establishments to the hiring benchmark set for that establishment.  Contractors should use the result of this comparison when assessing the effectiveness of their veteran outreach and recruitment efforts.

This VEVRAA Benchmark Database provides additional information regarding the establishment of hiring benchmarks and easy access to the national and State data that may be needed to establish these benchmarks.

OFCCP has now posted the Benchmark Database required by the new regulations implementing the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA).   The database includes the annual national percentage of veterans in the civilian labor force for contractors that choose to use this number as their benchmark. It also includes data on the percentage of veterans in the labor force in each State and the number of veterans who participate in each State’s employment service, for use by those contractors choosing to develop an individualized benchmark.

To help contractors use this database, OFCCP provides detailed user instructions and examples illustrating how a contractor could use the database to set an individualized VEVRAA benchmark.

You can access the VEVRAA Benchmark Database through OFCCP’s Web site at http://www.dol-esa.gov/errd/VEVRAA.jsp.

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: affirmative action, hiring goals, OFCCP, veteran, veterans, VEVRAA

Sham minority contractors have been hired in your city, probably

May 22, 2013 By ei2admin

Philadelphia Inspector General Amy Kurland announced last week that local contractors have used “sham minority subcontractors” on 19 projects to skirt antidiscrimination requirements.

In New York, investigations into fraudulent hiring of minority- and women-owned subcontractors are so common that they have become something of a specialty for local prosecutors. The most recent instance was a $10 million settlement reached with Siemens Electrical.

The story is the same in Chicago, Seattle and Dallas. And that’s just in the last few years. Go back further, and it’s the rare city or state that hasn’t endured a scandal or four tied to well-intentioned minority contracting regulations.

The particulars of the rules vary from city to city and state to state, but the objective is always the same: Foster economic development in minority communities by requiring (or strongly encouraging) companies awarded public contracts to hire subcontractors owned by minorities or women.

Keep reading this article at: http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/sham-minority-contractors-have-been-hired-in-your-city-probably 

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: 8(a), affirmative action, fraud, front, minority owned business, sham, woman owned business

SBA makes small businesses bigger (the easy way)

October 11, 2010 By ei2admin

The enlarging of small business has begun.

On Wednesday, the Small Business Administration published a final rule revising upward the size standards that determine eligibility for S.B.A. programs in three broad sectors of the economy. And that is good news for nearly 18,000 businesses that until now have been unable to take a government-backed loan or to get assistance winning federal contracts. But it makes the term “small business” a little more ambiguous.

S.B.A. size standards vary by industry (as enumerated in the North American Industry Classification System). Generally, caps are set based either on number of employees or average annual receipts, a system that was put in place in 1984. Apart from occasional inflation adjustments and other tweaks, the standards have remained largely the same since then. The changes announced this week, for the retail, accommodation and food service, and “other services” sectors, are the first to result from what the agency calls the first “comprehensive review” of size standards in nearly 30 years.

For the most part, industry size standards now set at $7 million in average annual receipts will be doubled or more, in some cases increasing to $30 million or $35.5 million. But these are not nearly as drastic as the adjustment made for new car dealers. Initially, the S.B.A. proposed raising the maximum receipts to $30 million, from $29 million, or, alternatively, setting the maximum level of employees at 100. But after lobbying from the National Automobile Dealers Association, the S.B.A. adopted a standard that defines dealers with up to 200 employees as small.

According to the S.B.A., nearly a third of those 18,000 companies, scattered across 70 industries, soon to fall under the small-business rubric are new-car dealers. Figures from the Census Bureau indicate that 83 percent to 93 percent — and probably closer to 93 percent — of all new-car dealerships will now be considered small. Moreover, the largest of those now-small firms will have annual revenue of around $120 million.

An S.B.A. spokesman, Jonathan Swain, said senior agency officials were not immediately available to discuss whether, or why, auto dealers had been singled out by the new policy. However, since the Obama administration effectively nationalized much of the General Motors and Chrysler last year, it has used the S.B.A. to alleviate the suffering of the politically powerful car dealer industry, even as it simultaneously pushed G.M. and Chrysler to shutter many of their dealers.

In May 2009, the S.B.A. created an alternative size standard for the purposes of getting a government-backed loan, in effect through last month. The alternative — which replaced the average revenue or headcount threshold with a maximum net worth of up to $8.5 million, combined with a net income capped at $3 million — was not specifically aimed at auto dealers, administration officials said at the time. However, they pointed out that relaxing the rule would increase the share of all new car dealers eligible for an S.B.A-backed loaned from 25 to 50 percent. A few weeks later, the agency announced a new, also temporary, “floor plan financing” program specifically devised to allow hard-pressed vehicle dealers to use the agency’s general business loans to finance inventory.

Andy Koblenz, the dealer association’s vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, defended the new size standard. “The top line revenue is not relevant because of the nature of the products,” he said. “If you’re selling books, or you’re selling clothing or you’re selling cars, the businesses are comparably sized in terms of physical plant, sales staff and management structure.” According to the association, the average pretax profit margin for its members has hovered around 1.5 percent in recent years, among the lowest margins of any American industry that’s turning a profit (on average, a dealer with $120 million in revenue would earn a taxable income of $1.8 million).

The new size standards take effect on Nov. 5. Meanwhile, the recently enacted small-business jobs bill directed the S.B.A. to put into effect another, still more generous, temporary alternative size standard for S.B.A. loans to supersede the expiring standard put in place in May 2009. Under the new law, the cap on net worth was raised to $15 million and the limit on income bumped to $5 million. On Friday, the S.B.A. announced that it had enacted the new standard.

Political pressures inexorably push up small-business size definitions. That, at least, is the theory of Jonathan Bean, author of a history of the S.B.A. provocatively titled “Big Government and Affirmative Action.” As the name suggests, this is not exactly a work of scholarship; it’s a polemic offered by an ideologue staunchly opposed to any S.B.A.-style intervention in supposedly free markets. Nonetheless, the events of the last several weeks suggest Mr. Bean has a point.

The pressure comes not just from Congress. In fact, in each of the three sectors the S.B.A. analyzed in its own review, the agency found many industries where the data suggested actually reducing size standards. But in each instance, it declined to do so. “S.B.A. believes that lowering size standard for those industries would not be in the best interests of small businesses when the economy is in a deep recession,” the agency wrote when it proposed these rules in October 2009.

Nor, apparently, is it in their interests after the economy exits recession. “Further,” the agency continued, “S.B.A. does not anticipate that it will propose to lower size standards after the Recovery Act terminates on September 30, 2010. S.B.A. intends for the proposed size standards, if adopted, to remain in effect unless and until it receives information or data that suggests a change is needed.”

In other words, we are all small businesses now.

— by Robb Mandelbaum, New York Times – Oct. 9, 2010

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: affirmative action, NAICS, SBA, size standards, small business

Construction contractors can expect affirmative action enforcement effort

March 29, 2010 By ei2admin

The Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”), the Federal agency responsible for enforcing affirmative action mandates against Federal contractors and subcontractors, recently reported on its enforcement efforts for fiscal year 2009. OFCCP collected $9.31 million in back pay from 94 federal contractors through settlements of discrimination claims last year. It completed close to 4,000 compliance evaluations, resulting in conciliation agreements with nearly 700 employers. OFCCP issued this data in connection with its budget request for 2011, which anticipates continued growth and aggressive enforcement efforts. Federal contractors can anticipate that OFCCP’s enforcements efforts will likely increase this year. The Agency’s budget for fiscal year 2010 was increased significantly by the Obama administration in order to increase the number of compliance officers and to meet the agency’s goal of conducting more on-site compliance reviews.

As reported by BNA’s Daily Labor Report, in 2010, the agency also intends to change its focus by increasing its affirmative action compliance efforts and more closely scrutinizing Federal contractors’ affirmative action plans. Construction industry employers are among those who are likely to be targeted in the coming year.

OFCCP has also announced a renewed emphasis on affirmative action efforts for veterans and disabled workers, which includes plans to amend and strengthen regulations under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. In light of OFCCP’s expressed intent to make affirmative action its enforcement priority, federal contractors should ensure that their Affirmative Action Plans, and related data on employment actions, are in place, up to date, and in full compliance with regulatory requirements.

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: affirmative action, discrimination, government contracting, OFCCP

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