DOL Wants to Hear How Federal Contractors Cut Affirmative Action

The Labor Department’s contractor watchdog asked companies that do business with the government to provide information about their efforts to stop running their previously required affirmative action plans.

Office of Contractor Compliance Programs chief Catherine Eschbach published a letter to contractors Friday outlining how they can voluntarily provide information about plans to “wind down” the programs they had in place under a rescinded executive order that established much of the DOL office’s power.

Contractors have been grappling with changes under President Donald Trump to previous requirements that they take proactive measures to limit race and sex discrimination.

Trump nixed EO 11246 in a Jan. 21 executive order. The decades-old directive had required contractors to create affirmative action plans, set hiring and placement goals, and assess recruitment and outreach efforts to underrepresented workforce populations. The agency had analyzed contractors’ employment data as part of audits to spot potential discrimination under the order.

Trump recently floated budget plans to shut down the OFCCP entirely and move its remaining functions to other federal agencies.

Trump’s order getting rid of EO 11246 also directed the DOL to ensure that OFCCP is “no longer allowing federal contractors to engage in workforce balancing based on protected characteristics” or requiring contractions to take “affirmative action,” Eschbach said in her letter.

Contractors can “volunteer information in narrative form” about actions they’ve taken in response to Trump’s order given the unique nature of each contractor’s compliance measures, she wrote.

The letter does not say contractors are required to provide the information, but does include examples of what they may include, such as now-defunct affirmative action plans or trainings and leadership programs available to employees of a certain race or sex.

As the agency winds down, most of the OFCCP’s workforce is slated for layoffs, though they have been paused as part of a court order halting the administration’s plans to downsize the government.