Consistent with a pattern we have seen in previous years in conjunction with the close of its fiscal year on September 30, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) recently announced a flurry of new financial settlements involving discrimination allegations brought by the agency against federal contractors. Indeed, the nine new settlements posted to OFCCP’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Library since our last update exceed the six settlements announced by the agency during the entire preceding six months, and netted OFCCP collectively over $3.5 million in financial remedies.
Of the nine new settlements posted, three involve alleged hiring disparities, and six involve alleged compensation disparities. As was true of our last settlement update, all nine of the settlements summarized below involved standard conciliation agreements (CAs). Although OFCCP has not given any indication that it is no longer entering into “Early Resolution Conciliation Agreements (ERCAs),” which generally include an audit moratorium and which became increasingly prevalent during the last two years of the prior administration, the fact that none have been announced since March is worth noting.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.