Late last week, Acting Director Craig Leen of the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued an important new and much-anticipated agency directive providing more information regarding how OFCCP will analyze contractor compensation practices during a compliance audit.
The new Directive 2018-05 replaces the controversial Directive 307 issued in 2013 by President Obama’s OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu, which ostensibly gave agency compliance officers more “flexibility” to investigate contractor compliance practices while providing no guidance on what contractors had to do to avoid discrimination allegations.
New Directive 2018-05 was one of three directives issued by Mr. Leen on August 24. The other two included a directive dealing with plans by OFCCP to develop a “comprehensive program to verify that federal contractors are complying with AAP obligations,” and a directive dealing with OFCCP’s intent to revive contractor recognition programs to single out exemplary contractor efforts.
The new compensation directive provides a deeper look into OFCCP’s statistical methodology and how the agency defines “similarly situated employees” for analysis purposes, commits the agency to increased transparency with regard to its analysis process, and provides contractors with the opportunity to speak with OFCCP labor economists and statisticians during the conciliation process.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.