The OFCCP has quietly published new 2020 “Corporate Scheduling Announcement Lists” (CSALs) on their website, laying out the contractor establishments that have been selected, but not yet scheduled for an OFCCP compliance evaluation. The agency has published two lists: one for supply & service contractors with 2,250 contractor establishments identified; and a separate list for construction contractors containing 200 entries.
Note that the appearance of an establishment on a CSAL list does not guarantee that the establishment will actually be audited any time soon. The audit is not formally initiated until the contractor receives a Scheduling Letter, and it is impossible to predict when the Scheduling Letter might arrive. In the past, some contractors have received Scheduling Letters on the day the CSAL was published; in other cases, the OFCCP did not initiate an audit for several years after the list was published. The agency’s current practice is to not send any Scheduling Letters to establishments until at least 45 days after publication of the corresponding CSAL.
New Focused Review Types
The CSAL includes information regarding the type of review, which could be a full audit, an even more invasive “corporate management compliance evaluation” (CMCE, which is a full audit with an additional focus on upper management), a compliance check, or a focused review. Until now, the OFCCP has only performed focused reviews in the areas of disability and veteran affirmative action. But the new 2020 list includes 500 establishments selected for new “promotion” focused reviews, and another 500 scheduled for new “accommodation” focused reviews.
However, it is unlikely that the OFCCP will start scheduling contractors for promotion or accommodation focused reviews any time soon. The agency has promised extensive guidance for contractors first, including much-needed guidance regarding things as basic as the definition of “promotion” (which is not defined in the agency’s regulations).
And for disability and veteran focused reviews, the OFCCP created new Scheduling Letters and had them approved through the Paperwork Reduction Act process prior to initiating those audits. Presumably, they will need to do the same for promotion focused reviews, yet there are no requests for approval for a promotion or accommodation focused review Scheduling Letter pending with the Office of Management and Budget.
CSAL Breakdown
Going down the list of review types, the new 2020 CSAL contains:
- 67 establishments selected for CMCE reviews;
- 402 establishments selected for regular, full audit;
- 250 establishments selected for a disability focused review;
- 500 establishments selected for a compliance check; and
- 31 contractors with functional plans selected for regular, full audit.
Notably, there are no contractors on the 2020 CSAL selected for veteran focused reviews, but the OFCCP only recently started working a 2019 CSAL of 500 veteran focused reviews (the “FY 2019 CSAL Supplement”).
Also of note, no single company appears more than 9 times on the new 2020 CSAL. While the OFCCP has no official limitation on the number of audits it can initiate for the same contractor, the agency does typically set its own internal limits, which are entirely up to the OFCCP’s discretion. In the past, that limit has been as high as 35 and as low as 5 (per parent company).
Construction Audits
The 2020 construction CSAL is the first time in a long time that we have seen any construction audits from the OFCCP. To our knowledge, the OFCCP does not have an approved Scheduling Letter for initiating full construction audits. However, earlier this year, the agency received approval for a new construction compliance check scheduling letter, and the construction CSAL indicates these will be compliance checks.
The construction compliance check Scheduling Letter (available here) requests:
- Examples of personnel records that list construction trade employment activity (applicants, hires, promotions, etc.);
- Examples of payroll records for construction trade employees working in the area under audit;
- Examples of job advertisements and postings; and
- Examples of accommodation requests (if any).
In addition, direct federal construction contractors (as opposed to federally-assisted construction contracts) must also submit their Section 503 (disability) and VEVRAA (veteran) AAPs.
The OFCCP has already laid the groundwork regarding contractor guidance in the form of a revamped construction-specific webpage and an all-new “technical assistance guide” here, so the agency could start scheduling construction audits ASAP.
As OFCCP district and regional offices work their way through the previous CSALs, they will eventually turn to the new 2020 lists as work demands and tools permit.