EEO Compliance

You may recall that, beginning in 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs began receiving requests under the Freedom of Information Act for all EEO-1 reports submitted by all federal contractors from 2016 through 2020.

While AI and machine learning tools used for recruiting, screening, and hiring prospective job candidates can be invaluable, they can also raise employers’ risk of disparate impact discrimination claims.

As you may have heard, in a published notice issued on August 19, 2022, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contractor Compliance (OFCCP) informed contractors that it had received a Freedom of Information Act request for all contractor EEO-1 Reports that the OFCCP had received between 2016 and 2020.

The latest series of Covid-19 news is discomfiting: an uptick in Delta variant infections and a vaccinate-or-test mandate being fought over in court.

After a yearlong delay due to the pandemic, it’s time for filing an EEO-1 Component 1 Report (EEO-1 Report) again.

Over the course of the past three months, the EEOC and Department of Labor have published a plethora of responses and updates to frequently asked COVID-19 questions. Topics have ranged from paid leave requirements under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and permissible actions under the ADA to wage and hour issues stemming from changes in employee work hours and locations and COVID-19 as a recordable illness.

On May 7, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that, due to the impact of COVID-19 on workplaces, it would delay collection of EEO-1 reports nearly a year – until 2021. The agency plans to start collecting 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 data in March of 2021.

As some states are beginning to reopen for business, new legal issues are developing, such as those involving employees who fear returning to work and the implementation of modified disaster recovery plans.

Each year, the U.S. government awards hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts to businesses to meet the needs of federal agencies and the military. Because of their scope, these federal contracts can be very important to the businesses that win them. But these often-coveted contracts come with a lot of strings.