Now that federal employees are back to work after the government shutdown, what is the status of the EEO-1 and VETS-100A annual required filings? The standard EEO-1 reporting deadline (September 30th) passed prior to the shutdown. For contractors that were able to certify their EEO-1 reports on or before September 30, 2013, the government shutdown did not affect those submissions. For contractors that submitted text files for upload prior to the September 30, 2013 deadline, DCI staff noted that some of those submissions were actually processed during the government shutdown. Although limited, there was some communication from EEOC support staff during the government shutdown as well as over the few days the government has been open. To date, most text files have been processed and uploaded for contractors to review and certify in the system, although not all text files have been processed.
Most contractors who utilized the text upload option were granted an extension until October 31, 2013 to certify their reports, allowing the EEOC Joint Reporting Committee time for processing the text files. Since most of the EEOC staff members were on furlough, and some EEO-1 text files are still pending upload, DCI expects that there will be an additional filing extension granted to federal contractors if requested. There is likely to be a large back-log as government employees return to their EEOC offices, and thus may require additional time for processing. For additional information regarding the typical issues that arise during a government shutdown, please reference our previous blog entry.
The deadline for VETS-100 and VETS-100A reports were extended until October 31st for all contractors, regardless of filing method (text upload or manual system entry). Since the deadline was October 31 instead of September 30, many contractors had not submitted this filing prior to the shutdown. Although the VETS website mentioned that contractors were able to file during the shutdown, it also stated that their Customer Support Contact center was unavailable during the shutdown. This means that contractors experiencing difficulty with or having questions regarding the VETS-100 or VETS-100A filing had to wait until the shutdown ended. Currently, the VETS agency has not indicated that an extension will be granted for filing VETS-100 and VETS-100A reports in light of the government shutdown. However, it is possible that some contractors may be granted an extension for the VETS-100 and VETS-100A submissions. Stay tuned for additional updates.
By Joanna Colosimo, M.A., Senior Consultant, and Jana Garman, M.A., Associate Consultant, DCI Consulting Group
