On July 1, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) renewed the Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing for three years. As a result, as of July 1, OFCCP will begin using the renewed letter to initiate compliance evaluations of nonconstruction supply and service government contractors. The last time OFCCP had released a revised scheduling letter and itemized listing was in October of 2014. As federal contractors know, the update in 2014 increased the burden to respond to OFCCP’s compliance evaluations in several ways.
The renewed Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing released today contain new language alerting contractors that OFCCP may share information obtained in response to the letter with other enforcement agencies both within the DOL and with other federal agencies with which OFCCP has information sharing agreements and assuring contractors of the measures taken to maintain confidentiality. A common theme of many contractors’ comments to new regulatory requirements imposed by the agency during this administration has centered on confidentiality concerns.
The Scheduling Letter is the correspondence that OFCCP sends to a contractor establishment to start the evaluation process. The letter serves to notify a particular contractor establishment that it has been scheduled for a compliance evaluation. The letter also requests that the contractor submit its Affirmative Action Programs and supporting data. The Itemized Listing, which is used with the Scheduling Letter, identifies the documents and information that government contractors must provide during a compliance evaluation.
According to OFCCP’s statement, the agency revised “the Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing (OMB Control Number 1250-0003) to ensure contractors understand the information being requested and to strengthen the agency’s assurances of confidentiality for the information provided.” In addition, the renewed Scheduling Letter includes language that better describes the investigatory and enforcement processes.
The OMB’s authorization of the Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing, both of which are discussed in OFCCP’s FAQs, expire on June 30, 2019.
