Update: Corporate Scheduling Announcement Letter released by OFCCP

All Federal contractors will be interested to know that the new OFCCP Corporate Scheduling Announcement Letter (CSAL) was released last week (March 2nd) and contractors are feeling the pain as many new establishments are being added to the list of expected desk audits. All Federal contractors should be contacting the CEO to determine if a CSAL was sent to the corporate office. If two or more locations are on the list then a CSAL should be on its way. Some contractors have had to contact the National OFCCP office to request their copy. While people may ask if making that call (or faxing in a request for the letter) might trigger an audit, BCG does not believe that would be the case and that the Federal Contractor Selection System (FCSS) is still in effect for contractors to be selected for audit.

Below is a sample of the text from the CSAL. Note that Lorenzo D. Harrison, Director, Division of Policy, Planning and Program Development is the authorizing signature at the bottom.

Standard Text from the CSAL:

"The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is informing you that at least two of your establishments have been identified for possible scheduling of a compliance evaluation during this scheduling cycle.

The establishments on the enclosed list were selected through OFCCP's Federal Contractor Selection System (FCSS). The FCSS is an administratively neutral selection system that identifies Federal contractor establishments for evaluation through multiple information sources and analytical procedures, including the use of EEO-1 Reports; development of threshold requirements, such as establishment size; random sampling; analysis of external Federal contract databases to better establish jurisdictional coverage; and the use of a mathematical model that ranks Federal contractor establishments based on an indicator of potential workplace discrimination. Establishments on the FCSS are released to OFCCP field offices for scheduling one name at a time in a pre-determined specific order.

For a variety of reasons, the enclosed list is not all-inclusive; it is possible, therefore, that other establishments of your company have been selected for a compliance evaluation during this scheduling cycle. For example, company establishments that are not clearly associated with your parent organization through currently available EEO-1 Reports, such as those that have been acquired through recent mergers, are not included in this list. In addition, the enclosed list does not identify whether an establishment of your company has been selected for evaluation because of a contract award notice, a directed review, as a result of conciliation agreement monitoring or an individual complaint, or as part of the agency's Corporate Management Compliance Evaluation (CMCE) or Functional Affirmative Action Plan (FAAP) initiatives.

The FCSS does limit the number of new compliance evaluations identified to 25 new evaluations per parent company during a scheduling cycle (currently, October 2008 through September 2009). The 25-establishment limit does not apply to compliance evaluations scheduled as a result of the agency's CMCE or FAAP initiatives, contract award notices, directed reviews, conciliation agreement monitoring, or credible reports of an alleged violation of a law or regulation, including complaints. If you believe that the scheduling of an establishment exceeds the 25-establishment limit, please notify the office that scheduled the evaluation.

Please note that this is not a scheduling letter and that you do not need to submit anything to OFCCP at this time. Establishments that are actually scheduled for evaluation will receive a scheduling letter as outlined in the Federal Contract Compliance Manual, Section 2B03. Some OFCCP offices may not schedule every establishment identified through FCSS in a given scheduling cycle. If an establishment identified through FCSS is not scheduled during a particular scheduling cycle, it is immediately placed back in the pool for future scheduling cycles.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you and your staff to take advantage of the compliance assistance OFCCP offers. OFCCP's Internet website at http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/index.htm hosts a wealth of technical assistance materials, including information about OFCCP's regulations, policy directives, and answers to frequently asked questions. The website also has information about free compliance assistance seminars in your area.

If you have any other questions about the compliance evaluation process or would like individualized compliance assistance, please contact the nearest OFCCP regional office. You can find a list of OFCCP regional offices at http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/contacts/ofcpkeyp.htm. Our regional offices would be happy to provide compliance assistance at the corporate level for establishments covered by this letter and any other facilities you may wish to include."