Filing Period Open for EEO-1 Report

As of July 1, companies have been allowed to file their EEO-1 reports for 2014.  The filing period remains open until September 30.  EEO-1 reports can be important, as a number of federal agencies, including OFCCP and EEOC, examine EEO-1 reports when they conduct investigations, and private citizens can ask for EEO-1 data as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.  OFCCP also uses EEO-1 reports as one factor in determining which companies and facilities it will target for affirmative action reviews.  Thus, you should carefully consider how employees are reported.  For example, if your company has a number of small facilities that have typically been rolled up into one location on the EEO-1 report, you should consider reporting these employees in their separate facilities.  While OFCCP has the right to review any of a federal contractor’s facilities, it is rare for the agency to conduct a full compliance review at a facility of less than 50 people.

New Passwords Required for 2013 EEO-1 Report Filings

The EEOC has reset the passwords for all users of the online EEO-1 filing system. With the resetting of the passwords, companies are no longer able to use their current password to log in to the online system to access previous EEO-1 reports. The agency has indicated that the decision to reset the passwords was made for security reasons. They are recommending that companies now save a PDF copy of the reports once they are certified, rather than relying on the online system to access previously filed reports. To request a new password, companies can click on the following link: https://egov.eeoc.gov/eeo1/reset_password.jsp.  Alternately, companies can send an e-mail to e1.lostloginpassword@eeoc.gov.  Companies can also call the EEO-1 Joint Reporting Committee at 1-877-392-4647 or 1-866-286-6440 for more information.

EEOC Publishes Notice of Intent to Survey Applicants Interested in Federal Jobs for Disability Status

On February 15, 2013, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published a notice of its intent to change the survey form used to collect demographic information from persons expressing interest in positions with the federal government.  The form would be revised to include questions concerning disabilities that applicants may have.  Currently, the form only includes questions concerning gender, ethnicity, and race.

The proposed revisions to the survey form do NOT affect federal contractors or other private sector employers.  Instead, these proposed revisions are meant to help the federal government determine whether it is meeting its objectives in regard to hiring persons with disabilities for positions with the federal government.  The proposed revisions to the survey form do not simply ask whether an individual is a person with a disability, but instead ask specific questions about particular types of disabilities as well as questions concerning particular conditions an applicant may have.

While the proposed revisions to the survey form do not apply to private sector employers, these revisions are consistent with the federal government's desire to provide greater access to employment for persons with disabilities.  The requirement to survey applicants for disability status is one part of the proposed regulations issued by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in December of 2011.  These proposed regulations have not been finalized by OFCCP, and concerns have been raised about a number of the changes found in the proposed regulations including this requirement to survey applicants concerning disability.  EEOC currently suggests that no disability survey should be conducted for applicants until the post-offer stage of the employment process.  It is possible that the proposed survey released on February 15 is an indication that EEOC may be changing its position in this regard.

The EEOC's notice can be found at the federal government's website showing all proposed regulations or at the Federal Register website.  OFCCP's proposed revisions to its regulations regarding disability can be found on the documents page of the HR Analytical Services website.

National Research Council Releases Report on Compensation

The National Research Council (NRC) has released a prepublication version of a document entitled "Collecting Compensation Data from Employers" that discusses OFCCP and EEOC's recent efforts to collect and analyze compensation data from employers.  The report can be found on the National Research Council's website.  The 118 page document discusses the various policies and practices related to the collection of compensation data by various regulatory agencies and the interest these agencies have in collecting additional compensation data.

The NRC basically concludes that efforts to collect compensation data should be limited in scope and that the data collected should be carefully protected.  Among their specific conclusions are the following:

1. EEOC, along with OFCCP and the U.S. Department of Justice, should prepare a comprehensive plan in regard to how earnings data will be used before beginning any kind of data collection effort.
2. EEOC, OFCCP, and the DoJ should initiate a pilot study in order to evaluate the value of whatever tool is used to collect compensation data.  The pilot study should be conducted by an independent contractor, and that contractor should be asked to measure items such as data quality, cost, and burden on employers who are required to respond.
3. EEOC should "enhance its capacity" to both analyze earnings data and protect this information.
4. EEOC should collect data on rates of pay rather than actual earnings or pay bands.
5. EEOC should consider how it will develop appropriate data protection techniques and should support research into the development of applications that will assist in data protection.
6. EEOC should seek legislation that would help the agency ensure that it can protect confidential data. Such legislation should deal in part with data-sharing agreements with other agencies and should provide for penalties if compensation data is released.

While the conclusions in the NRC report primarily focus on EEOC, they are by extension also applicable to OFCCP's efforts to collect pay data.  The NRC report is likely to act as a significant deterent to OFCCP's plans regarding the implementation of a new compensation collection tool, and may act as a deterent to the agency's plans to release new guidance regarding how compensation should be analyzed.

Please note that the NRC report may be subject to change.  All information in the report is the copyright of the National Academies Press.