OFCCP Sends Out Pre-Scheduling Notices

It appears that OFCCP is gearing up for the next set of compliance reviews. We have several clients who have received pre-scheduling notices advising them that they will be undergoing review soon. The pre-scheduling notices we've seen were directed to the specific facility that will be undergoing a review and not to a corporate headquarters location. Federal contractors and subcontractors should be on the lookout for these letters.

This will be an unusual cycle of reviews because of the level of uncertainty at OFCCP over various initiatives (including the proposed veterans and disability regulations) and because of OFCCP's desire to look more extensively into compensation issues.  As noted in a previous post, OFCCP is scheduled to unveil the final version of its revised regulations for veterans and persons with disabilities in April (though we do not believe this is likely to happen).  More importantly, this round of reviews will be the first round under OFCCP's new compensation directive.

It's interesting that OFCCP is sending out pre-scheduling notices to individual facilities.  For several years, OFCCP had issued letters to certain multi-facility employers advising them that one or more facilities would be undergoing an affirmative action compliance review. These letters, called Corporate Scheduling Announcement Letters (CSALs), were generally sent twice a year. While their use had been somewhat unpredictable, CSALs were very helpful to large organizations that could use the CSAL list to plan for compliance reviews.  We'll have to watch to see if OFCCP uses only the single facility pre-scheduling notices during this round of reviews or if there will be traditional CSALs sent to corporate headquarters that provide a list of facilities that will undergo review.

It is worth noting that the current round of pre-scheduling notices, like the CSALs OFCCP had been using, are NOT formal letters opening compliance reviews (i.e. "scheduling letters"). These pre-scheduling notices are just a notification of a likely review. In past years, we've had the following scenarios occur:

• Clients have received a formal scheduling letter within days of receiving a pre-scheduling notice
• Clients have received a formal scheduling letter months after receiving a pre-scheduling notice
• Clients failed to receive a scheduling letter even though they were on a CSAL list suggesting there would be a compliance review

Thus, while the pre-scheduling notice is a useful warning, it doesn't necessarily provide a specific timeline for review.  What the pre-scheduling notice does is put a company on notice that a review is likely to occur.  We encourage any company that receives a pre-scheduling notice to begin preparations for an OFCCP compliance review as soon as possible.  If you need assistance in preparing for a review, please contact us.