When the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) alleges discrimination by a federal contractor in violation of the agency’s regulations, the dispute is almost always resolved through a settlement, most often in the form of a Conciliation Agreement (CA). Both the agency and the contractor tend to prefer this route to avoid time-consuming and costly administrative litigation.
On relatively rare occasions, however, when the parties cannot agree on a settlement and the agency wants to assert its authority, OFCCP will bring a formal administrative enforcement action prosecuted by the Labor Department’s Solicitor of Labor. Absent a settlement, history shows that these formal adjudicatory proceedings can last for years before a final determination is rendered, and even after that there can be an appeal to the federal courts. The few cases that do go to a final determination can be significant because they may establish legal precedents that define both OFCCP’s authority and the scope of its jurisdiction.
There have been new developments in two formal administrative lawsuits initially brought during the Obama Administration, one involving WMS Solutions, LLC (WMS) and the other JPMorgan Chase and Co. (JPMC), which we wanted to bring to your attention.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.