On August 19, 2014, OFCCP finally issued a Directive on Gender Identity and Sex Discrimination that clearly acknowledged that gender discrimination under Executive Order 11246 covers discrimination on the basis of transgender and gender identity status. Regular readers of this column may recall my January 2014 article in which I reported a headline from a December 4, 2013 Buzzfeed.com post that read, "Federal Official Refus...

On August 19, 2014, OFCCP finally issued a Directive on Gender Identity and Sex Discrimination that clearly acknowledged that gender discrimination under Executive Order 11246 covers discrimination on the basis of transgender and gender identity status. Government Compliance is where you'll hear hot topics about Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action Planning, and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Progr...

On July 21, 2014, President Obama issued an amendment to Executive Order 11246 adding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the list of protected bases covered by that order. The Department of Labor was directed to prepare regulations within 90 days to implement the amendments. The Department notes, in a fact sheet on the new amendments, that many contractors already have voluntary, internal prohibitions against dis...

President Obama recently issued an amendment to Executive Order 11246 which added the verbiage of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the language, broadening the protected bases in that order. While the Department of Labor has been directed to prepare regulations, many questions and concerns are raised with these additions. Government Compliance is where you'll hear hot topics about Equal Employment Opport...

On June 30, 2014, the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision in Sylvia Burwell, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, Et Al., Petitioners V. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., Et Al. Nos. 13-354 and 13-356 (Hobby Lobby). Hobby Lobby was decided under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Hobby Lobby and two other closely held companies had faced massive fines for refusing to cover four contraceptives that they b...

Hobby Lobby was decided under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) argued that for-profit corporations could not have religious beliefs and should not be considered "persons" under the Act. The Court disagreed with HHS, finding that the term "persons," as used in the Act, did apply to closely held corporations. Government Compliance is where you'll hear hot t...

On February 14, 2010, Mercury News reported that Google, Apple, Yahoo, Oracle and Applied Materials had successfully convinced the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) not to release race and gender data from their EEO-1 report under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because releasing such data would cause "commercial harm." CNN made a similar FOIA request on August 18, 2011 for EEO-1 data on 17 technology companies that refu...

What is an EEO-1 report, who has to file it, when does it have to be filed, and what confidentiality protections is the government required to observe? Sandra Scott Zeigler, Esq., a recognized authority on Federal EEO enforcement with 25 years of experience divided equally between the EEOC and OFCCP, sheds light on this topic as well as the pros, cons, and caveats of voluntary EEO-1 disclosure. You can also read Zeigler's...

The determination of who is "similarly situated" is critical to the outcome of a discrimination case. It is the agency's burden to prove that its calculations are correct and based on appropriate pools for comparison. The most obvious and common avenue of defense for a contractor is to challenge the construction of the pools used in the discrimination analysis. In order to successfully mount this kind of challenge the contr...

Determining who is similarly situated is critical to the outcome of a discrimination case. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has to prove its calculations are correct and based on appropriate pools for comparison. A common defense for a contractor is to challenge the construction of the pools used in the discrimination analysis. Sandra Scott Zeigler, Esq., a recognized authority on Federal EEO en...