Directly in line with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program’s (OFCCP) new policy emphasis on agency transparency, accountability, efficiency and collaborative resolution, the OFCCP released three new helpful directives on November 30, 2018 concerning the agency’s investigative procedures and avenues for increased communication with federal contractors. The three directives, titled DIR 2019-01 (regarding “Compliance Review Procedures”), DIR 2019-02 (regarding “Early Resolution Procedures”), and DIR 2019-03 (regarding “Opinion Letters and Help Desk”) were issued to “provide guidance to OFCCP staff or federal contractors on enforcement and compliance policy [and] procedures.” While each directive serves its own unique regulatory function, together these directives represent OFCCP’s commitment to consistency in enforcement and cooperation with the federal contractor community. As a whole, they should be viewed as beneficial to contractors aiming to comply with the law, but minimize the “gotcha” approach recently favored by the agency.

DIR 2019-01, “Compliance Review Procedures” -

The first of the newly issued OFCCP directives, DIR 2019-01, concerns the manner in which the OFCCP conducts compliance reviews. The purpose of DIR 2019-01 was to rescind DIR 2011-01, an Obama-era policy issued in December of 2010. The previous policy, DIR 2011-01, issued by former Director Patricia Shiu, outlined the Active Case Enforcement (ACE) for Supply and Service (S&S) compliance evaluations. Under the ACE procedures, full OFCCP desk audits were required, and there was an increased frequency of mandatory onsite reviews. However, as a result, investigations were more thorough and the “overall processing time increased.” These were trends that the current Acting Director, Craig Leen, aimed to address.