This continues to be a busy time at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). As 2011 ends, here are some of the current items involving OFCCP and related agencies.
Deadline for VETS-100/VETS-100A Report is December 30, 2011; All Covered Companies MUST File by This Date
If your company is a federal contractor or subcontractor, the period to file your VETS-100 and/or VETS-100A report ends on December 30, 2011. The Department of Labor’s Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) indicates that no companies will be allowed to file their 2011 reports after December 30, 2011. Please note that the data for your VETS-100/VETS-100A will be based on a payroll run during the period from August 1 through September 30. Thus, the filing period and the data period are not the same for this year’s report.
It is worth noting that almost all organizations required to file the annual report with VETS should be filing the VETS-100A report and NOT the VETS-100 report. The VETS-100 report is used when a company has an unmodified contract from earlier than December 1, 2003. It is very rare for a company to have an unmodified contract from that time period.
It is also worth noting that the category “Other Protected Veterans” as used on the VETS-100 and VETS-100A reports is NOT a “catch-all” category for veterans not covered by another category. Only veterans who were involved in an active military campaign and who were awarded a campaign badge should be counted under this category.
OFCCP Releases Proposed Revisions to Affirmative Action Regulations on Persons with Disabilities
On Friday, December 9, OFCCP released its long-awaited proposed regulations regarding persons with disabilities. Many of the proposed regulations parallel the proposals OFCCP made regarding its regulations on veterans. I want to encourage you to review the proposed regulations and to provide comments to OFCCP, as these proposed regulations will have a significant impact on federal contractors and subcontractors. The fact that the proposed regulations for persons with disabilities so closely parallel the revisions to the regulations for veterans OFCCP announced in April of 2011 has important implications for contractors. It is unlikely OFCCP would have created this parallel set of regulations if the agency did not expect final approval of most (or all) of its revisions to the veterans regulations.
Proposed Changes to Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing Delayed
OFCCP released what it expects to be final changes to its scheduling letter and itemized listing on September 28, 2011. However, these changes have not yet been implemented. OFCCP is currently using the scheduling letter and itemized listing that it has used for the last few years and intends to continue using this version until at least the end of December. However, we expect that some time very soon, OFCCP will receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget to use the revised version of the scheduling letter and itemized listing. When that occurs, federal contracts and subcontractors will be making significant revisions to the manner in which they provide data on personnel activity and compensation to OFCCP. Federal contractors and subcontractors will also be providing OFCCP extensive information on various policies and practices under the new version of the scheduling letter and itemized listing.
Companies that Received June 3, 2011 Scheduling Letters Now Undergoing Review
OFCCP’s Midwest Region sent a significant number of scheduling letters that had a formal date of June 3, 2011. These letters were subsequently recalled by OFCCP. It appears that many of the contractors that received a June 3 scheduling letter have now been issued a new scheduling letter by OFCCP and will be undergoing an OFCCP review. If your company received a June 3 scheduling letter that was subsequently recalled, you should prepare as soon as possible for a potential OFCCP review.
New Regional Director Appointed to OFCCP Midwest Region
On January 1, 2012, Bradley Anderson will become the director of OFCCP’s Midwest Region. Mr. Anderson was most recently the District Director in OFCCP’s Charlotte, North Carolina district office. Mr. Anderson replaces Sandra Scott Ziegler, who retired on June 30, 2011. There has been considerable change in the Midwest Region following Ms. Ziegler’s retirement, with a number of the functions that had been handled by the regional office moving to the various district offices in the region. A number of OFCCP employees from the Midwest Regional office were also transferred to various district offices.
Did You Know … that you can get information on the categories of veterans that fall into the category “Other Protected Veterans”? A list of the military operations where a campaign badge has been awarded can be found at http://www.opm.gov/staffingportal/vgmedal2.asp. The category “Other Protected Veterans” has long been misunderstood by employers and employees alike, and this is one reason that OFCCP has moved to rename the category as “Active Wartime or Campaign Badge Veteran” in its proposed revisions to the veterans regulations.