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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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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The OFCCP’s Final Rule on Sex Discrimination took effect this week, on August 15, 2016. Many of you already know that sex discrimination has been illegal since at least 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was enacted. Pay Discrimination based on sex has been illegal since at least 1963. Most employers know they cannot base…
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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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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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