Earlier this year, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) formally announced its intent to seek approval to use two new scheduling letters to notify federal construction contractors that they have been scheduled for a “compliance check.” According to OFCCP, compliance checks are intended to “impose a smaller contractor burden” than traditional compliance reviews, in part because they are narrowly focused on ensuring that contractors keep required records.
As required under the federal Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), OFCCP requested public comments on its proposal, and NT Lakis lawyers submitted written comments, among other things expressing concern that the proposed construction compliance check letters would impose an unnecessary burden on construction contractors contrary to OFCCP’s announced intent.
OFCCP has now completed its review of the comments submitted and recently filed a final proposal with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seeking approval of the new compliance check letters. While OFCCP has made some minor positive changes in response to our comments, the final letters are largely the same as originally proposed, and therefore are likely to impose an undue burden on construction contractors.
OMB is required to seek public comments before it decides whether to approve OFCCP’s request. The deadline to submit comments is January 10, 2020.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.