Ask the Experts is an exclusive online forum provided by Circa. Federal contractors and subcontractors are invited to submit questions to industry experts related to OFCCP compliance, affirmative action planning, and equal employment opportunity.
Might you have any information on rules and regulations with hiring folks with service animals versus emotional animals?
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, covered employers are required to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified applicants and employees unless doing so would produce undue hardship to the organization. Keep in mind that there is a difference between a service animal (a dog, or miniature horse, specially trained to assist someone with a physical or mental disability) and an emotional support animal. An emotional support animal does not need to...
Some ATS’ ( iCIMS and Taleo) now offer a feature where a candidate can upload the resume for a specific position and then if the company is interested at that time they forward an application to the candidate. This feature only allows applications to be completed by candidates of interest. Is it allowable by OFCCP to only account for candidates that complete an application vs candidates that express an interest in a position by uploading their resume?
It looks like there are three groups in the expression-of-interest camp: 1) Applicants that submit resume and identify a specific job. 2) Applicants who receive an application back from employer. 3) Applicants who formally apply to a position. The key here is to have an established hiring process and have that documented in writing and applied consistently. Granted that you have that in place, two components of the Internet Applicant rule are noteworthy. Both Sections 3 and 5 provide some...
Can the Self-Identification forms for Protected Veterans and the Self-Identification forms for Disability all be filed together? I keep a notebook on each form by alphabetical order. But would like to make it one book for all. The all expire at same time. Can I do that? It would be nice to file new hires or terms into one book rather than 3 separate ones. They are not kept with the Personnel files.
The regulations under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act do not state anything specific regarding where to house self-identification forms. However, any forms that would contain medical information typically is stored in file cabinet under lock and key. Both of these forms can be stored together but should be kept apart from the regular employee file and in a place that is secure and only accessible to persons needing this information for the preparation of required reporting (e.g....
I realize the US Virgin Islands are US territories… do they fall under VEVRAA?
The answer is "no," and the citation is 41 CFR Section 60-300-5(a)(5). “The provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 of this clause do not apply to the listing of employment openings which occur and are filled outside of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Wake Island, and the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands.”
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