Executive Summary: Yesterday (March 25, 2024), the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) will begin accepting online submissions on April 1 from covered contractors to certify they have developed and maintained affirmative action programs (AAPs) for each establishment or functional unit. The deadline for certifying compliance this year is July 1, 2024.
Background:
The Contractor Portal is OFCCP’s platform where covered federal contractors and subcontractors must certify, on an annual basis, whether they are meeting their requirement to develop and maintain annual AAPs. The portal allows multiple users from individual organizations to register, manage records, and certify each establishment and/or functional/business unit, as applicable.
Certifications must be completed by July 1, 2024:
Existing federal contractors and subcontractors must use the OFCCP’s Contractor Portal to complete their certification for this third annual cycle by July 1, 2024. Contractors and subcontractors that meet the jurisdictional thresholds, including specified contract dollar and employee thresholds, are required to develop and maintain AAPs and certify their compliance annually.
Along with the announcement of the 2024 certification window, OFCCP provided some minor updates to its FAQs and released a new certification-focused webinar. In OFCCP’s new webinar, the agency clarifies that federal contractor and subcontractor establishments will be reset to “Not Certified” on March 31, 2024. Thereafter, beginning April 1, federal contractors will be able to certify the status of their AAPs for each establishment and/or functional/business unit, as applicable, from April 1, 2024 until July 1, 2024.
Timeline Change
OFCCP’s decision to open the Contractor Portal on April 1, rather than March 31, may lead to increased difficulties for contractors with April 1 affirmative action plan years. In prior years, these contractors, like those contractors with May 1, June 1 and July 1 plan years were able to certify based on completion of their prior year’s AAPs. Now, contractors with April 1 plan years must complete their 2024 AAPs on or before July 1 in order to certify compliance. Contractors with May 1, June 1 and July 1 AAP plan years should consider certifying prior to the expiration of their prior year (2023) AAPs so they do not need to expedite completion of their 2024 AAPs.
We will continue to monitor OFCCP announcements. If you have any questions regarding this Alert, please contact the authors and members of FordHarrison's Affirmative Action/OFCCP Compliance Group, Nancy Holt, Partner in our Washington DC office at nholt@fordharrison.com, or E. Rena Felton, Counsel in our Atlanta Office at efelton@fordharrison.com. Of course, you can also contact the FordHarrison attorney with whom you usually work or any member of the practice group.