Last Friday, January 20, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued its newest Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (affectionately known as CSAL) for applicable supply and service federal contractors and their applicable subcontractors. The OFCCP definition of “federal contractor” is relatively straightforward - generally a single $50,000 contract with a federal agency - but the OFCCP definition of an applicable subcontractor to a federal contractor can be much more subtle in application and could be difficult to ascertain.
The OFCCP has issued CSALs periodically over the last several years to provide some advance notice of the potential for an affirmative action compliance audit by the OFCCP. An OFCCP affirmative action compliance audit can be lengthy and detailed and will delve into many facets of applicable contractor/subcontractor personnel policies and practices, including the analysis of statistical data with respect to hiring, wage equity, and other employment matters.
The current CSAL can be found here. We understand that for this CSAL, the OFCCP selected contractors/subcontractors that are required to maintain affirmative action compliance programs but did not complete the OFCCP’s mandatory annual certification as of December 31, 2022. (See The Modern Workplace post from January 28, 2022, regarding that mandatory OFCCP registration/certification process).
This current CSAL has approximately 500 entities and sites listed. It should be checked by a contractor or subcontractor, for it is a “courtesy” notification to a company establishment that an OFCCP “Scheduling Letter” may be soon on its way. An OFCCP Scheduling Letter is a formal notice that an OFCCP affirmative action compliance audit and evaluation has been set, with a fairly short deadline to provide extensive data to the OFCCP as the start of the audit and evaluation process.
While being on a CSAL list is not an assurance that a contractor or subcontractor will be audited and evaluated, it certainly signifies a dramatic increase in the likelihood of such and serves as a call to get your affirmative action compliance house in order.
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