by Fred Satterwhite, Senior Consultant, DCI Consulting Group
(UPDATE: Final rule published on May 20, 2010)
On May 4, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its review of the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) final rule prescribing the details of the notice of employee rights under Federal labor laws required by Executive Order 13496. This means that the final rule will be published in the Federal Register very soon.
As mentioned here in March, the DOL submitted its final rule to the OMB on February 17.
President Obama signed Executive Order 13496 (“Notification of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws”) on January 30, 2009. E.O. 13496 required the Secretary of Labor to prescribe the size, form, and content of the notice to be posted by a contractor describing the rights of employees under Federal labor laws, consistent with the policy set forth in section 1 of the order. The DOL published its proposed rule on August 3, 2009, and the subsequent public comment period ended on September 2, 2009.
Contractors should stay tuned to see what changes, if any, are made to the final rule based on the comments received by the DOL. Given OFCCP’s recent increase in scheduling on-site compliance reviews and repeatedly stated new interest in fielding and investigating individual employee complaints, the final implementation of the E.O. 13496 posting requirements will be germane to contractors’ compliance efforts.