More than 20 years after the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) initiated a compliance review at a NationsBank (now Bank of America) Charlotte, N.C., facility, the federal courts will finally have an opportunity to review the merits of the case.
An April 21, 2016, ruling by the Labor Department’s Administrative Review Board (ARB), released on May 17, 2016, partially overturns a 2013 Recommended Decision and Order by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), which had awarded $2.2 million in monetary remedies to a class of more than 1,100 African-American applicants for entry-level positions for alleged hiring discrimination that occurred in 1993 and 2002-2005.
Although the ARB affirmed the ALJ with respect to the finding of discrimination occurring in 1993, it reversed the ALJ’s findings with respect to the 2002-2005 allegations, concluding that OFCCP failed to prove a pattern or practice of intentional racial discrimination.
The ARB’s ruling is the final step in the Labor Department’s administrative enforcement process, and now tees up the long-running case for court review. Indeed, Bank of America, which has contested both the authority under which OFCCP conducted the original compliance review as well as the findings that any discrimination occurred, has already appealed the ARB’s decision to federal district court.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.