Yesterday (March 25, 2024), the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) will begin accepting online submissions on April 1 from covered contractors to certify they...more
Executive Summary: Following the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA v. Harvard/UNC, Attorneys General from 13 states and United States Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas sent letters to business leaders, warning of potential legal...more
11/6/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
College Admissions ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina
Executive Summary: On August 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published a final rule amending the 2020 pre-enforcement regulations colloquially referred to as the...more
Executive Summary: On June 23, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 20-year precedent in two lawsuits: Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v....more
7/25/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
College Admissions ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Equal Protection ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Title VII
On April 18, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued an updated scheduling letter. OFCCP rejected the vast majority of the comments submitted by the contractor community in response to the...more
OFCCP announced yesterday, March 20, 2023, that the Contractor Certification Portal will open in ten days. Contractors have until June 29, 2023 to certify that they are in compliance with OFCCP’s affirmative action and...more
On August 19, OFCCP published a Notice in the Federal Register alerting federal contractors that it received a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) seeking all federal...more
Executive Summary: Just two days before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued a proposed scheduling letter and itemized listing seeking a number of additional documents...more
On March 21, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) dialing back the level of transparency and evidentiary standards for issuing pre-enforcement notices...more
On March 15, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued a new Directive clarifying covered contractors’ obligation to conduct pay equity audits on an annual basis. Quite notably, the OFCCP issued...more
Equal Pay Day marks the point when the average woman’s current earnings, combined with what she earned in the previous year, equals what the average man was paid last year. This year, equal pay day came early because the...more
March 30, 2022 is the deadline for federal contractors, including subcontractors, to register in OFCCP’s recently launched Contractor Portal. Beginning March 31, contractors will have until June 30 to verify compliance with...more
2/21/2022
/ Affirmative Action ,
Data Collection ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Federal Contractors ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
OFCCP ,
Portal
On December 17, 2021, the Eleventh Circuit refused to stay a nationwide injunction blocking the federal contractor COVID-19 vaccine mandate from going into effect, pending appeal. By way of background, on Tuesday, December...more
12/24/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Injunctions ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
The EEOC recently announced that the 2021 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection is tentatively scheduled to open on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. The EEO-1 Component 1 report is a mandatory data collection that requires all...more
12/20/2021
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Labor Regulations ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, a federal district court in Georgia halted enforcement of the Biden Administration’s federal contractor vaccine mandate in every state. As part of his plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic,...more
12/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Lack of Authority ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
On September 24, 2021, President Biden’s Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued guidance for federal contractors and subcontractors regarding mandatory COVID-19 workplace safety protocols (“Guidance”). ...more
10/6/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Model Contract Clauses ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Safety Programs ,
Subcontractors ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
On September 9, 2021, President Biden signed a new Executive Order requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to provide adequate COVID-19 safeguards for individuals working on or in connection with a federal government...more
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the OFCCP’s Affirmative Action Program Verification Interface (AAP-VI). Although the AAP-VI portal on the OFCCP’s website is not currently live, there is a placeholder...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has extended the deadline to submit and certify 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 Data to August 23, 2021. As discussed in our prior Alert, the EEOC announced the opening of...more
6/29/2021
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
Executive Summary: June is Pride Month. On June 16, 2021, Miguel Cardona, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”) under President Joe Biden, issued a Notice of Interpretation stating that Title IX...more
6/28/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Education ,
Educational Institutions ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title IX ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
Yesterday, April 26, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the opening of the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collection. ...more
4/27/2021
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Labor Regulations ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
On March 12, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that the EEO-1 Component 1 data collection will open at the end of April 2021 and close in July 2021. The agency has not announced an exact...more
3/16/2021
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
While the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Bernstein v. Virgin America, Inc., et al., ___ F.3d ____, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 5197 (9th Cir. Feb. 23, 2021), gave some wins to the airlines, air carriers employing...more
3/15/2021
/ Airline Employees ,
Airlines ,
Aviation Industry ,
Class Action ,
Delta Airlines ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Labor Regulations ,
Non-Residents ,
Over-Time ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
United Airlines ,
Wage and Hour
Employer Update: Tuesday, March 2, 2021, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it has revised its Fiscal Year 2020 Supply and Service Scheduling List by removing all establishments that...more
Executive Summary: Within hours of his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Biden signed his Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation....more
2/1/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender