THE CENTER FOR CORPORATE EQUALITY CALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY IN OFCCP REPORTING

DCI Consulting Group
March 11, 2009

WASHINGTON D.C. – The Center for Corporate Equality (CCE) released a comprehensive report analyzing enforcement results compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) on their equal employment and affirmative action requirements.The report, A REVIEW OF OFCCP ENFORCEMENT STATISTICS: A CALL FOR TRANSPARENCY IN OFCCP REPORTING, offers a detailed analysis of the agency’s fiscal year 2007 enforcement results that resulted in $51,680,950 in back pay and annualized salary and benefits for 22,251 American workers who had been subjected to unlawful employment discrimination.Detailed findings outlined in CCE’s report include the types of systemic discrimination OFCCP resolved in FY 2007, the kinds of industries involved and the levels of employees and applicants impacted; how the financial remedies in settlement agreements were calculated; how long it took OFCCP to open compliance evaluations and resolve them through settlement; and any differences in enforcement strategy between the OFCCP’s six regional offices that audit federal contractor establishments.“This comprehensive report provides a rare glimpse inside OFCCP’s enforcement operations,” said Patricia Schaeffer, executive director for the nonprofit employer association based in Washington DC. “It provides much needed transparency into how OFCCP enforces its equal employment and affirmative action mission,” she said. “We’re hopeful OFCCP will provide comparable in-depth data in their future enforcement reports,” she said.

Among the findings of the report:
Specific findings include:
1. Nearly all of the settlements (95 percent) involved allegations of systemic discrimination in hiring. Only five percent of the settlements involved allegations of systemic compensation discrimination. None of the OFCCP settlements in fiscal year 2007 involved allegations related to systemic discrimination in promotions or terminations.

2. No “Glass Ceiling” compliance evaluation, which is an audit of a corporate headquarters that focuses on identifying barriers to women and minorities advancing to senior executive positions, resulted in financial remedies.

3. More than half of the settlements involved alleged systemic discrimination against applicants for lower level jobs in food service and manufacturing industries.

4. Certain lower level jobs, such as laborers and operative positions, were found in about three-quarters of settlements.

5. Only settlements involving allegations of systemic discrimination resulted in financial remedies for workers.

6. The average length of time between start of the compliance evaluation and the conciliation or consent decree was 2.5 years.

Full Story: http://ofccp.blogspot.com/
For a copy of the report: http://www.cceq.org/