With the release of Directive 2021-02, OFCCP has completed its commitment to the OFCCP principles, first announced in 2018, of Certainty, Efficiency, Recognition, and Transparency (or CERT).The Directive, effective December 11, 2020, commits the agency to review, at least on an annual basis, all policies and practices under the Division of Policy and Program Development and the Division of Enforcement.
The Directive designates both the Policy Director and Director of Enforcement with the responsibility to ensure the clarity of polices and practices, and to remove ambiguity when possible. The purpose of the certainty process is to “facilitate compliance and thereby enhance equal employment opportunity”.
Directive 2021-02 undoubtedly lives up to its namesake and serves to make clear that several resources, released over the last three years, provide the contractor community the certainty OFCCP promised. Most notably, the Directive reaffirms the eight commitments made in the guidance document “What Federal Contractors Can Expect” by attachment. Additionally, the Directive, as described in the Background section, and linked to in the “Reference” section, outlines the resources, programs, and policies released since 2018 that affirms OFCCP’s demonstration of certainty, including:
- What Federal Contractors Can Expect
- Contractor Assistance Portal
- Opinion Letter Program
- Contractor Compliance Institute
- 2020 Technical Assistance Guides
- Comprehensive Update to the Federal Contractor Compliance Manual (FCCM)
- Note, this was updated as recently as December 9th. Updates are outlined through the web, but do not, to date, appear in the published PDF.
- Nondiscrimination Obligations of Federal Contractors and Subcontractors: Procedures to Resolve Potential Employment Discrimination
This Directive very likely (but not definitely) is the last under the guidance of Director Leen, bringing his administration’s library of Directives to a record total of 32.
By Amanda Bowman, Associate Principal Consultant at DCI Consulting Group
