On March 31, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs announced new directive 2022-02: Effective Compliance Evaluations and Enforcement, which rescinds directives issued under the Trump administration aimed at increasing the certainty, efficiency and transparency of the department’s operations for the contractor community.

Specifically, the new directive rescinds and replaces the four directives below:

• Directive 2018-06: Contractor Recognition Program (Aug. 24, 2018)
• Directive 2018-08: Transparency in OFCCP Compliance Activities (Sept. 19, 2018)
• Directive 2020-02: Efficiency in Compliance Evaluations (April 17, 2020)
• Directive 2021-02: Certainty in OFCCP Policies and Practices (Dec. 11, 2020)

The directive, which has the stated goal to “promote effective enforcement and greater federal contractor compliance with equal employment opportunity laws,” makes a number of significant changes to the OFCCP compliance evaluation process, including:

• Rescinds 45-day delay between OFCCP publishing a Corporate Scheduling Announcement Letter and issuing scheduling letters requiring documents/data.
• Requires all affirmative action plan data be provided within 30 days of receipt of scheduling letter, rescinding previous eligibility for 30-day extension period.
• Broadens the scope of information OFCCP may request in a supplemental request, including documents from a period of two years before a scheduling letter is sent.

Overall, the directive indicates the OFCCP will be taking a more aggressive enforcement approach under President Biden. For more information, read ABC general counsel Littler Mendelson’s article, “New OFCCP Directive Increases Employer Burden in Compliance Review Process.”

“The new directive radically alters OFCCP’s approach toward compliance reviews and removes guardrails that had been put in place to ensure that the agency’s actions would be consistent with the law and due process,” Littler Mendelson said in the article.

ABC will continue to monitor OFCCP’s operations and provide updates in Newsline.