What the EEOC and OFCCP Want You to Know About Criminal Background Checks

What’s up with the EEOC, the OFCCP and criminal background checks? While the EEOC enforces anti-discrimination laws for private employers, and generally those who employ 15 or more employees, the OFCCP enforces affirmative action laws and regulations to which federal contractors are subject. Administering background checks to all applicants can’t be discriminatory, can it? If not, then why…
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Federal Law Alert: Annual EEO-1 Reports

Pay Data Will Now Be Required on EEO-1 Reports for Employers with 100 or More Employees The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that it will require employers with 100 or more employees to submit summary pay data and total hours worked for the year as part of the annual EEO-1 report. The first…
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An Overview of the Fair and Safe Workplaces Final Rules

Back in July, 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13673, also known as the Fair and Safe Workplaces Executive Order. It is a comprehensive Order aimed at ensuring federal contractors’ compliance with fourteen—yes fourteen–federal labor laws, along with their state counterparts. Now, two years later, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council and the United States…
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Why the Debate about Transgender Employee Access to Restrooms Matters

As a federal contractor, you have probably been told in no uncertain terms that federal laws (and specifically, anti-discrimination laws) pre-empt state laws. You may have also heard some rumblings from the EEOC about transgender employees’ access bathrooms. You may also have heard of some controversy on this point in North Carolina. If you are…
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Criminal Background Checks, Affirmative Action – and You…

Many employers, federal contractors included, run criminal background checks on their candidates. If you do not, you run the risk of hiring a dishonest or even violent employee. If you do and you do not run them correctly, you risk running afoul of federal and state anti-discrimination laws and fair credit reporting acts—and OFCCP scrutiny….
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