OFCCP Publicly Announces Conciliation Agreement with FedEx

The OFCCP has a policy of publicizing settlements of discrimination and conciliation agreements but they typically do so through their website or through less visible means.  In an interesting move, the OFCCP held a press conference (view the press release) this morning to tout the effectiveness of their enforcement efforts. In terms of Pat Shiu’s comments regarding the “cost” of being a federal contractor, it seems that the “cost” may have to be tabulated in the court of public opinion, too.

The OFCCP was more than happy to announce the settlement of a conciliation agreement with divisions of FedEx (Ground and Post) for what the OFCCP calls “one of the most significant cases of discriminatory hiring practices” in OFCCP history. The conciliation agreement spanned 4 OFCCP regions, 15 states, 23 FedEx facilities and affects a potential pool of 21,000 qualified applicants, with 1,703 part time Package Handler job offers to women and minorities and a financial settlement of $3,000,000 to be distributed among 1,000’s of applicants who were denied employment. 

This announcement sends a clear message to large federal contractors, particularly those with high volume hiring decisions with standardized selection processes, that validation of all aspects of the hiring process has become increasingly more important. Federal contractors should not consider this decision as a one-fluke by the OFCCP; the OFCCP certainly thinks there are more broad sweeping investigations in store and has requested funding to support these investigations in their 2013 budget through Strategic Case Selection http://www.dol.gov/dol/budget/2013/PDF/CBJ-2013-V2-10.pdf.

Feel free to contact us if this brings up questions or concerns regarding your affirmative action planning and hiring practices.

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