Claudia Gordon serves in the U.S. Department of Labor as Special Assistant to OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu. In this position, Ms. Gordan works very hard within the OFCCP on many important policy issues, particularly with respect to discrimination against persons with disabilities. Ms. Gordon was profiled recently in the White House Blog. The link is at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/08/30/meet-women-administration-claudia-gordon
The OFCCP reports that sixty-six regional personnel attended compliance officer training in Washington DC on August 9-20. The training was a result of Director Patricia Shiu’s commitment to hire 200 new compliance officers for expanded enforcement activities and ensure all compliance officers receive uniform, nationally certified training for the first time in more than a decade. Training courses ranged from discrimination theories and interviewing skills, to how to conduct a desk audit. Shiu told the attendees: “You will make sure everyone gets a fair shot at a job and that no one has to endure unlawful harassment of any kind.”
OFCCP Director Pat Shiu spoke at a public forum in Chicago on August 20. The forum was sponsored by the OFCCP Midwest Region. Director Shiu stressed jobs, the importance of expanding outreach to workers’ rights organizations, the current regulatory reform efforts for veterans, individuals with disabilities and construction workers, and her work on the President’s National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force. OFCCP Regional Director Sandra Zeigler provided national and Illinois employment forecasts and regional enforcement accomplishments.
Many federal contractors, especially those with FAAP agreements, know Jim Pierce, who works in OFCCP’s national office. Jim is a 28-year employee of the Department of Labor and was recently designated to represent the DOL at the White House, where President Barack Obama and members of the New Orleans Saints’ football team gathered to attend the traditional meeting between the president and the latest Super Bowl winner. Jim’s story is in the DOL newsletter at: http://www.dol.gov/_sec/newsletter/2010/20100819-2.htm#pierce.
The Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy has released an online training resource designed to educate and inform HR professionals, hiring managers and employers about TBI and PTSD, and how these injuries may impact employment, while illustrating that employment can play a vital role in the recovery of wounded veterans.
A link to this training is at http://www.americasheroesatwork.gov/forEmployers/presentations/TBIptsd/.
OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu delivered the first keynote address at the ILG national conference on Wednesday, August 4, 2010. In general, Shiu’s remarks followed recommendations made by the White House National Equal Pay Task Force on July 20, 2010. The text of her remarks is posted on the OFCCP website here.
Patricia Shiu’s remarks underscore a consistent message from the Department of Labor: stepped up and aggressive enforcement of OFCCP regulations, and the development of new regulations to strengthen its focus on pay equity, and affirmative action requirements for individuals with disabilities and for protected veterans.
The OFCCP now has the budget, staff, and most importantly, the will, to successfully undertake this ambitious enforcement agenda. Failure to comply will have serious and expensive consequences for contractors.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in the Federal Register on July 23 seeking input from the public on ways to strengthen its regulations requiring federal contractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities. The agency invites the public to help revise the regulations implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
A link to the ANPRM is here. Public comments must be submitted by September 21, 2010.
DOL released a press release today announcing that Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis is sending sub-agency heads to Gulf states impacted by the BP Deepwater spill. In addition to OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu, the delegation will include Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Jane Oates and Wage and Hour Division Deputy Administrator Nancy J. Leppink. During their visit, they will meet with local fishermen, community-based organizations, and state and local appointed and elected officials in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. The trip is scheduled for July 7 through July 9. The press release is at: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20100946.htm.
On June 15, 2010, OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu signed off on verification procedures under Executive Order 13496 (Notification of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws and DOL’s implementing regulations). The purpose of the 20-page set of procedures is to provide instructions for conducting compliance verification under this executive order and implementing regulations during the onsite phase of a compliance evaluation or in response to a written complaint of noncompliance. According to the procedures, the compliance verification will be conducted as a routine part of the onsite phase of compliance evaluations, including, where appropriate, focused reviews. A link to this information is at http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/directives/dir290.pdf.
A new announcement from OFCCP:
On September 24, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order (EO) 11246 ringing in a new era of nondiscrimination and affirmative action requirements for those companies doing business with the Federal Government. OFCCP plans to highlight this important milestone and celebrate its accomplishments toward making America’s workplaces diverse and free of discrimination. Preliminary ideas include hosting special events around the nation, developing educational materials, engaging the media and getting the word out via OFCCP’s Web site, webinars and social media tools. OFCCP encourages all organizations to join in this celebration by promoting the importance of preventing workplace discrimination and highlighting their successes in doing so. Furthermore, OFCCP is collecting personal stories from individuals who have been positively impacted by EO 11246 or OFCCP’s work. For more information, or if you would like to contribute a story, please e-mail OFCCP-Anniversary@dol.gov.
