The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the OFCCP’s Affirmative Action Program Verification Interface (AAP-VI). Although the AAP-VI portal on the OFCCP’s website is not currently live, there is a placeholder page for it at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ofccp/aavi. The OFCCP has published a User Guide, available here, and an Admin Guide, available here, which provide more information about the AAP-VI. Currently, federal contractors submit their AAPs via mail or email during an audit, but when the AAP-VI becomes active it will be the primary source for entering, tracking, and submitting AAPs for review by the OFCCP. Contractors should note that the AAP-VI system will require them to respond annually in the System for Award Management (SAM) portal to a question seeking certification of their compliance with AAP requirements.
According to the User Guide, the AAP-VI system will enable federal contractors to submit their AAPs in a “more efficient manner and provide visibility and reporting capabilities of the data submitted by the Program.” Additionally, the User Guide states that OFCCP staff will “access the portal’s metadata to conduct analysis, determine noncompliance, and generate reports. The portal will integrate with OFCCP’s existing Compliance Management System (CMS) so that affirmative action Programs can be used as supporting documentation for compliance evaluations.”
The OFCCP also has released a notice, to be published in the Federal Register on September 2, 2021, rescinding its November 2019 notice, which stated that the agency did not expect to find significant utility in EEO-1 Component 2 summary pay data and, thus, would not request, accept, or use Component 2 pay summary data. In the new notice, the OFCCP states that it believes the position taken by the agency in the November 2019 notice “was premature and counter to the agency’s interests in ensuring pay equity.” The agency stated that it believes it would be valuable to analyze this data to assess its utility for OFCCP’s enforcement efforts. Accordingly, the OFCCP “intends to devote further agency resources to evaluate the data’s utility because the joint collection and analysis of compensation data could improve OFCCP’s ability to efficiently and effectively investigate potential pay discrimination.”
We will provide updates about the AAP-VI system and the OFCCP’s utilization of EEO-1 Component 2 data as information becomes available. If you have any questions about your compliance obligations as a federal contractor or need assistance preparing an AAP, please contact the authors of this Alert, Nancy Holt, partner in our D.C. office at nholt@fordharrison.com, or Jill Harrison, partner in our Atlanta office at jharrison@fordharrison.com, both of whom are members of FordHarrison’s Affirmative Action/OFCCP and Government Contractors practice groups. Of course, you can also contact the FordHarrison attorney with whom you usually work.