The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has revised its long-standing “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) with the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) that is designed to minimize duplication of effort and promote coordination between the agencies in their respective discrimination enforcement efforts under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII) and Executive Order (E.O.) 11246.
Under the revised MOU, which for the first time has added the Department of Justice as a signatory, (1) DOJ must now be consulted on cases that “raise issues of law that are novel, unsettled, or may have significant precedential value;” and (2) OFCCP is granted greater latitude to retain so-called “dual-filed” complaints of individual discrimination, whereas in the past such complaints would have typically been referred to the EEOC.
The stated objectives of the MOU remain unchanged from the 2011 version, the last time the MOU was revised: (1) to advance the EEOC and OFCCP’s joint objectives in eliminating workplace discrimination; (2) to promote greater efficiency and interagency coordination; and (3) to eliminate inconsistency and duplication of effort among (now) the three agencies, including DOJ.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.