Consistent with past agency practice, Craig Leen, Director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), has issued a memorandum to all federal contracting agencies giving them permission to waive written affirmative action program (AAP) requirements for contracts entered into to provide Hurricane Delta relief.
The so-called National Interest Exemption (NIE) waiver period is for three months, or until January 9, 2021, 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 obligations to develop written AAPs under the three authorities 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.