In the final of three recent internal directives issued by Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Director Craig Leen that are aimed at improving the efficiency of OFCCP’s compliance evaluation enforcement procedures, the agency is formally launching a dispute resolution mechanism to provide contractors a “last attempt at obtaining timely remedies and avoiding the delay and expense of litigation.”
Directive 2020-03, “Pre-Referral Mediation Program,” formalizes a means under which a federal contractor and OFCCP can go to mediation to resolve findings of discrimination violations prior to referrals to the Labor Department’s Office of the Solicitor for enforcement. Under the program, “the mediator will not make a ruling or execute a final decision, but will assist the parties in weighing their options and finding mutually satisfactory outcomes.”
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.