The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has granted three more “National Interest Exemptions (NIE)” providing a waiver of written affirmative action program (AAP) requirements for federal contracts entered into to provide relief for the California and Oregon Wildfires and Hurricane Sally.
Each NIE waiver period is for three months and is subject to further extension if “special circumstances in the national interest so require.” Under the NIE, federal contracting agencies are permitted to amend the required equal employment opportunity (EEO) contract clause by adding prescribed language exempting the contractor from the obligation to develop written AAPs under the three laws that OFCCP enforces – Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 503), and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA).
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.