Through our previous blog posts, we have kept our readers updated on changes to EEO-1 reporting scheduled to go into effect March 2018. Recently, President Trump put forth a regulatory freeze on new and pending regulations, which affects the revised EEO-1 regulations. This left many contractors wondering about the status of the EEO-1 Report for 2017. To address these concerns, on January 27, The OFCCP Institute sent a letter to EEOC Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic, and the Acting Secretary of Labor, Edward Hugler, requesting a review of revised EEO-1 report and answer the following questions for employers as quickly as possible:
- Will Component 2 in fact be implemented in 2018 as finalized?
- If Component 2 is eliminated, will the EEOC return to using the EEO-1 Report without Component 2?
- If EEOC returns to the EEO-1 Report without Component 2 will the survey be due by September 30, 2017 or in March 31, 2018?
- If the EEO-1 Report is due by March 31, 2018 rather than September 30, 2017, will the VETS-4212 report deadline be moved from September to March so that employers will be reporting on the same population for both reports?
To add more context on how we think this might play out, Victoria A. Lipnic, the recently appointed Acting Chair of the EEOC, has been against the added pay component of the revised EEO-1 Report, finding it burdensome to contractors and of little value. However, during a recently held Seyfarth Shaw, LLP sponsored panel discussion, she mentioned she was the only commissioner who voted against it and given the regulatory freeze, this regulation “would fall squarely under” the direction outlined by Trump.
It will be interesting to know how the EEOC and the Acting Secretary of Labor respond to the Institute’s letter. We will keep our readers informed on their response.
By Vinaya Sakpal, HR Analyst, and Rachel Monroe, HR Analyst, at DCI Consulting Group
