January 2013 What's New at OFCCP for 2013 A Potpourri of Recent Changes to OFCCP Policies and Audit Procedures HAPPY NEW YEAR! This first column of the year is a blend of predictions looking forward and a potpourri of recent OFCCP developments, both small and large. The Change of Administration Changes Everything: Potentially including Both Substance and Timing...

November 2012 What the Obama Re-Election Means For OFCCP "You're going to need a bigger boat" It does not mean "more of the same". The President won a narrow, but nonetheless decisive, victory. But, he has little or no "mandate" and had very short "coattails", as pundits say in the Nation's Capital. While the states will continue to tally ballots for several more weeks an...

October 2012 OFCCP's New Formulas to Identify Federal Contractors For Audit I cannot currently prove it in a court of law, but I would bet my next paycheck that I know how OFCCP is now going about the task of selecting federal contractors for audit. OFCCP roiled the waters last year in Fiscal Year 2012 with new and secret procedures to select contractors for audit. While the...

September 2012 Notes from Kona and the 2012 NILG Meeting For those of you who do not know, the National Industry Liaison Group ("NILG") held its annual meeting at Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii August 27-31, 2012. For those of you unfamiliar with the NILG, please go to: www.nationalilg.org Most lasting impression (other than pink/purple sunsets with a fireball red sun sink...

August 2012 The Strange Case of Hawaii and Puerto Rico: Or, Where to Affirmative Action? By convention and practice (not by Executive Order, statute, regulation or guideline), OFCCP has never required covered federal contractors and subcontractors to prepare Affirmative Action Plans for minorities for their establishments in Hawaii or Puerto Rico. OFCCP has nonetheless always requ...

July 2012 What To Do in an Uncertain World...As the World Turns at OFCCP Business demands predictability and abhors uncertainty. General Counsels want to know "likely outcomes" and timetables. Vice Presidents of Human Resources want to know what to do to comply and what not to do to unnecessarily increase the Company's legal risk. I was just about to decide on this theme of re...

June 2012 What happens if the Batter steals first base? At the risk of igniting explosive Blog threads written by those who despise sports analogies in ANY context, or setting off counter-Bloggers who insist on using ONLY football analogies, the perplexing question of what to do if a batter in baseball just up and steals first base is now arising often in the context of OFCCP audi...

May 2012 The Frito-Lay ARB Decision: Trouble Ahead for Contractors OFCCP v. Frito-Lay, Inc., ARB Case No. 10-132 (May 8, 2012), Appeal to Federal District Court coming ISSUE: "This case involves the question whether *** OFCCP has authority to request certain data relating to *** Frito-Lay, Inc's *** AAP as part of a 2007 Desk Audit." ALJ HAD HELD: On July 23, 2010, "[e]sse...

April 2012 The FedEx Story: Several Important Developments to Note about OFCCP’s Compliance Processes Maybe I can shed a little light on the FedEx (Ground) Conciliation Agreement (i.e. settlement) with OFCCP since there seems to be much confusion and much interest among federal contractors. While this is a small settlement, it is nonetheless important to teach many differe...

March 2012 If You Give A Moose A Muffin...OFCCP's New Style of Compensation Audits…and How Federal Contractors May Defend Against Them OFCCP is now monthly changing its audit processes. While OFCCP's audit tone is changing (to become more directive, more wooden, more demanding, and more strident--causing many (very many) contractors to now ruefully label OFCCP a "Bully"), the sub...