As expected, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has published a formal proposal to rescind an agency regulation issued in 2020 by the Trump-era OFCCP entitled “Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption.” That rule broadened the agency’s long-standing regulations interpreting the religious exemption contained within Executive Order (E.O.) 11246.
OFCCP’s proposal would also amend the E.O. 11246 regulations to eliminate the four new definitions related to the exercise and practice of religion, as well as eliminate the novel legal test and examples of what does and does not constitute a “religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society.”
As we noted when the revised regulations were issued last year, they should have little or no application to most employers. Similarly, the proposed rescission, which in essence would bring things back to where they stood before the revised regulations were issued, should have little or no impact on CWC member companies.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.