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Federal Contractors Should Expect Changes At The OFCCP And Homeland Security |
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Federal contractors and covered subcontractors subject to regulation by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) should expect many changes in the coming months as new leadership takes over and the agency begins to focus on long-neglected construction contractors and beneficiaries of federal stimulus funds. In August 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor confirmed earlier reports that the agency had appointed Patricia A. Shiu to lead OFCCP as deputy assistant secretary. Shiu comes to OFCCP from her position as vice president of the Legal Aid Society Employment Law Center in San Francisco, where her work focused on race and sex discrimination claims. She also directed the Legal Aid Society’s Work and Family Project. Shiu formerly served as vice president and board member of the National Employment Lawyers Association, a plaintiffs’ attorneys group, and served on the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Reviewing Authority during the Clinton administration. Numerous state and local organizations have recognized Shiu for her advocacy on behalf of women’s rights, particularly those of disadvantaged women. Shiu may require Senate confirmation when a planned November 2009 Department of Labor reorganization elevates the OFCCP head to assistant secretary status. Other changes underway at OFCCP include a focus on construction contractors, particularly those that receive stimulus funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Supply and service contractors whose contracts benefit from ARRA funding may also find themselves targeted for compliance audits. Selection for these ARRA-related audits will be under a different procedure than the normal audit selection processes. For example, audits of ARRA contractors are almost certain to include an on-site component even without OFCCP-designated “indicators” of systemic discrimination, and audits will not be limited to the 25 per scheduling cycle maximum applicable to non-ARRA audits. In addition, an ARRA establishment may be audited as long as it has been at least six months — rather than the usual 24-months — since the establishment was last audited under non-ARRA procedures. To implement these changes, OFCCP is seeking to increase its budget and workforce by approximately one-third over its 2009 fiscal year allocations. And, while not an OFCCP initiative, federal contractors with contracts of $100,000 or more should be prepared to participate in E-Verify. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security named E-Verify the “electronic employment eligibility verification system to be used by federal contractors.” The responsibility to use EVerify applies to all newly hired employees and to those employees “directly engaged” in performing work in the United States on covered federal contracts. On August 26, 2009, the E-Verify rule survived a court challenge by several business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The rule took effect September 8, 2009. Julia Turner Baumhart |
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