On August 1, 2008 the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) updated their interim guidance document on federal contractors’ use of the newly revised race/ethnic categories in the new EEO-1 report. The revised document further explains what contractors can do when developing their affirmative action plans in terms of the organizational profile, availability analysis, goals and adverse impact. More specifically OFCCP stated the following:
Organizational Profile
Until further rules and guidance are provided by OFCCP, when developing an organizational profile, as required by § 60-2.11, contractors will not be cited for noncompliance with the Executive Order if they choose to develop such analyses using the revised EEO-1 categories, rather than the race and ethnicity categories listed in § 60-2.11 (the original EEO-1 categories). Contractors also are permitted to prepare their AAP using the racial and ethnic categories provided under OFCCP's current regulations.
Availability and Adverse Impact
In addition, pending further guidance, contractors should consider all individuals identified as belonging to two or more races as minorities when comparing the percentage of women and minorities in each of their job groups to the available workforce, as required by §§ 60-2.13, 60-2.14 and 2.15, or when examining whether their employment practices result in disparities in the employment or advancement of minorities, as required by § 60-2.17.
Goals
When establishing placement goals pursuant to § 60-2.16, contractors should, in most cases, continue to establish a single goal for all minorities. Where a substantial disparity exists in the utilization of a particular minority group, or in the utilization of men or women of a particular minority group, the contractor may be required to establish separate goals for those groups. Pending further guidance, contractors are not expected to set a separate placement goal for individuals identified as belonging to more than one race
The EEOC revised the EEO-1 report in November of 2005. The revisions included changing the “Hispanic” category to “Hispanic or Latino” as well as including to new race categories; two or more races, and Native Hawaiian.
OFCCP has indicated that they continue to work on revising the regulations to account for these changes.
