The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has issued a new internal Directive announcing the launch of a “Voluntary Enterprise-wide Review Program” (VERP) that will exempt “high-performing” participating federal contractors from routine compliance audits for up to five years. The program will be voluntary, and interested contractors will be able to start applying online sometime during OFCCP’s next fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2019.
Under the terms of new Directive 2019-04, contractors selected for participation in the VERP program will have to agree to a compliance evaluation of the company’s corporate headquarters, along with sample audits of location-based establishments. In addition, participating contractors will be required to provide the agency with yet-undefined periodic reports and information through which OFCCP can confirm that the contractor maintains a workforce free of discrimination or other material violations of OFCCP’s regulations.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.