According to recent enforcement data released by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) covering the second and third quarters of Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 (January 1, 2018 – June 30, 2018) – the approximate period under which the agency has been under the leadership of Director Ondray Harris – OFCCP has completed 359 compliance evaluations, a clear drop-off in the number of completed audits compared to similar periods over the last ten years. For example, the agency closed more than 2,500 audits in FY 2015.
At the same time, however, the percentage of audits that have closed with discrimination violations is surprisingly high. In particular, OFCCP has closed a higher percentage of audits with compensation discrimination findings than any other time in recent memory. In addition, and perhaps not surprisingly, the percentage of audits closing with “technical” violations such as recordkeeping and recruitment lapses has declined as the agency has returned to its past practice of closing audits with only minor violations without demanding a formal conciliation agreement.
Related OFCCP enforcement data can be found on OFCCP’s website.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.