NT Lakis attorneys have submitted written comments to the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in support of the agency’s announced intent to implement a new “Excellence in Disability Inclusion Award” (EDI). According to OFCCP, the new award is designed to “highlight successful practices and strategies that have expanded and improved the recruitment, hiring, retention, and promotion opportunities of individuals with disabilities.”
Under OFCCP’s proposed award criteria, recipients will be granted a two-year moratorium on compliance evaluations and will be expected to engage in activities such as mentoring other federal contractors, developing technical assistance tools, and conducting outreach events to other employers.
In addition to expressing support for contractor recognition programs generally, and the EDI award specifically, our comments contain recommendations on ways that OFCCP could further improve the award eligibility criteria to expand contractor participation, and thus more successfully achieve the stated goal of identifying “exemplary practices of successful contractor establishments.”
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.