OFCCP To Increase Enforcement Efforts
November 12, 2010
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is taking a more aggressive approach to ensure compliance with employment regulations applying to federal contractors. The agency has taken a number of steps to enhance its enforcement:
Eliminating the cap on compliance reviews. Previously, the OFCCP had limited the number of facilities that may be subject to a compliance review in any scheduling cycle to 25 facilities of a business in a given year.
Increasing the number of compliance evaluations and complaint investigations by 20 %.
Hiring over 200 additional compliance officers and other enforcement personnel.
The agency is not only placing a renewed focus on women and minorities but also expanded attention on veterans and individuals with disabilities, as well as an expanded focus on whites, men, and individual minority groups.
The agency is examining contractors' efforts at outreach and positive recruitment of covered veterans and individuals with disabilities. When there are audits, there are questions about such outreach efforts. At a minimum, the OFCCP expects federal contractors to be able to identify contact people at organizations that they have reached out to in recruiting workers. Contractors should also monitor the referrals and hires from these sources.
Contractors can avoid violations for lack of outreach by regularly listing job openings with:
Minority and women recruitment sources
Veteran and disabled recruitment sources
State employment services
Should you have questions about compliance issues or need assistance in developing an Affirmative Action Plan, contact us by phone at 423-764-4127 or by email at sesco@sescomgt.com .
