The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is working to meet one of its goals for this year as it begins compliance reviews of construction companies. In the last month, the agency has begun sending letters to construction companies formally opening compliance reviews.
OFCCP Will Increase Number of Compliance Review of Construction Companies
OFCCP has done a small number of compliance reviews of construction companies in the last five years. During federal fiscal years 2019 and 2020, the agency completed only 10 reviews involving construction companies. That number grew to 111 reviews during federal fiscal year 2021. During this same period, OFCCP has completed an average of about 1,250 reviews of non-construction companies.
In September of 2021, OFCCP published a corporate scheduling announcement list that included 400 construction sites that will be undergoing compliance reviews. The construction reviews that have started in the last month are from this list. Unlike the compliance checks that occurred during 2021, the current construction reviews will be more extensive evaluations of the compliance activities of construction companies.
The compliance reviews that will be occurring during 2022 will open with a new scheduling letter and itemized listing that OFCCP released in April of 2021. This scheduling letter and itemized listing request far more information at the start of a compliance review than OFCCP had traditionally requested from construction companies. For example, the itemized listing requests extensive data on individual employees and individual applicants rather than asking for summary data on these two groups.
Reviews Will Focus on Work Sites and Construction Trade Employees
Unlike compliance reviews for non-construction companies, the reviews for construction companies will focus on work sites rather than affirmative action plans. The letter that opens a compliance review for a construction company requests information regarding employment activities in a specific geographic area. Construction companies do not prepare affirmative action plans (AAPs) for minorities and females and, in some cases, are not required to prepare AAPs for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. OFCCP will be focused much more on specific actions that construction companies have taken, and specific data related to employees and applicants for the relevant geographic area.
Compliance reviews of construction companies are also different than other reviews in that they focus on one segment of the workforce. Data and other information to be submitted to OFCCP for a construction compliance review is almost exclusively focused on construction trades employees. OFCCP has little interest during these reviews in office employees or supervisors on construction sites.
Since OFCCP has done such a small number of full construction compliance reviews in the last few years and has never used the new scheduling letter and itemized listing before, the current round of compliance reviews of construction companies may be problematic for both OFCCP and construction companies. If your company has been chosen for a compliance review, DCI is available to assist.
Author: Bill Osterndorf, Principal Consultant & Associate Director of Specialty Markets,
