A recently disclosed directive issued by former Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Director Patricia Shiu shortly before she left office rescinds a 1990 directive to agency field staff regarding the establishment of jurisdiction over federal contractors when a discrimination complaint is filed. The new directive was signed by former Director Shiu on October 20, 2016, but did not appear on OFCCP’s website until last week.
Importantly, Directive 2017-1 does not affect OFCCP’s standards for establishing jurisdiction over federal contractors. Rather, it simply removes a prior directive that contains outdated contract dollar thresholds, which could be a source of confusion for the regional office staff tasked with establishing jurisdiction in the pre-investigation phase of handling discrimination complaints.
Indeed, the new directive notes that, because these contract dollar thresholds are “dynamic,” the agency will provide notice of future adjustments to thresholds through its website and “other publicly available outreach materials,” rather than by issuance of new directives.
The directive can be found here.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.