EEO/Affirmative Action Compliance Obligations For Federal Contractors and Subcontractors

We provide our clients with a detailed list of compliance obligations, as well as guidance in meeting each of them. The following brief summary is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor is it necessarily thorough or exhaustive. Every company's situation is unique. You are encouraged to contact your legal counsel regarding corporate obligations under applicable federal and state equal opportunity laws.

 REPORTS

• Develop and maintain annual Affirmative Action Plans (AAPs) pursuant to:
  
  a. Executive Order 11246: gender, race, religion, and national origin
  b. Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973: disability status
  c. 38 U.S.C. 4212: Vietnam Era and special disabled veteran status
  
  
• File an annual EEO-1 Report (for every company establishment) with the Joint Reporting Committee and retain records. (Further information about this report may be obtained at: www.mimdms.com/jrc.htm
.)


• File an annual VETS-100 Report (for every company establishment) with the Department of Labor's Office of Veterans' Employment and Training Service, and retain records. (For more information see: www.vets100.cudenver.edu.)
  
  
• Upon receipt of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program's (OFCCP's) Equal Opportunity Survey, respond to it. OFCCP has begun surveying half of all contractor establishments each year. (See the OFCCP's website for more information regarding the Survey: www.dol.gov/dol/esa/public/ofcp_org.htm.)

 NOTICES

• Post all required federal posters, including the OFCCP's "EEO is the Law."
  
  
• Post your company's EEO policy, harassment policy and notification of Family and Medical Leave Act.

 OUTREACH & RECRUITMENT

• List employment openings with the state's employment services (or America's Job Bank).
  
  
• Document all good faith efforts (i.e., posting jobs with women's/minorities' organizations; participation in career fairs; corporate sponsorship of or employee participation in community organizations -- especially those involved in career development of women, minorities, disadvantaged youth, veterans or the disabled; etc.).
  
  
• Include "We are an Equal Opportunity Employer" (or at a minimum, "EOE") in every recruitment advertisement.

 PERSONNEL ACTIONS

• Maintain race/gender data for all personnel actions, including applicant flow, hires, promotions, transfers and terminations.
  
  
• Conduct Adverse Impact Analyses (for applicants/hires, promotions and terminations) if your workforce has 100 or more employees.
  
  
• Be able to sort out and track all relevant resumes and applications against each hire.

 AUDITING

• Audit personnel files to ensure that confidential information is retained separately from the "general" file accessible to managers.
  
  
• Maintain and audit I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) Forms to ensure that:
  
  
  • you have retained only those forms that are required to be retained; and
    
    
  • every one of those forms is completely and accurately filled out by both the employee and company representative.
  
  
  
• Audit compensation and employment processes and procedures; identify problems and remedy them.
  
  
• Review all physical and mental job qualification requirements. If a requirement tends to screen out qualified disabled individuals or veterans, ensure that the requirement is job-related and necessary for the safe performance of the job.
  
  
• Review personnel procedures to determine whether they assure thorough and systematic consideration of the job qualifications of all applicants and employees who are known to be disabled individuals or covered veterans for job vacancies filled either by hiring or promotion, and for all training opportunities available.

 RECORD RETENTION

• Retain all personnel and employment records according to timeframes required by state and federal law.
  
  
• Retain all personnel records relevant to complaints, Compliance Evaluations or enforcement actions until final disposition.
  
  
• Post-job offer, invite new hires to self-identify as individuals with disabilities and covered veterans wishing to be considered under the affirmative action program.
  
  
• Keep a readily retrievable file for each known disabled individual or covered veteran. Document the reason(s) whenever a known disabled individual or veteran is not selected for employment, promotion or training.
  
  
• Retain records of all accommodations made to hire, promote, train, transfer or otherwise improve the employment opportunities of disabled and veteran employees.

 OTHERS

• Communicate to management the company's Affirmative Action goals and managers' responsibilities to implement the AAP and prevent harassment of employees.
  
  
• Document the procedure for implementing religious accommodation.
  
  
• Notify contractors, vendors and suppliers of their compliance obligations.
  
  
• Validate pre-employment tests. Ensure that pre-employment physicals occur only after a job offer has been extended.

For more detailed information concerning the regulatory requirements, please see the DOL/OFCCP website.