Tuesday 7 August 2018

What Goes Into An OFCCP AAP

By Scott Martin


The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs requires qualified contractors and subcontractors to create an Affirmative Action Plan. An OFCCP AAP is required 120 days after a federal contract has been given to an employer. It is made to ensure that minorities, veterans, women, and PWDs are given equal access to employment opportunities like the rest of the workforce recruited by a specific employer.

All federal contractors and subcontractors with fifty employees or more are required to create an AAP. They must also have a contract worth fifty thousand dollars or more. Those serving as depositories of government funds and financial institutions functioning as issuing and paying agents for savings bonds and savings notes are required to create an action plan.

Qualifiers of the aforementioned criteria are responsible for adhering to an OFCCP prescribed method of hiring and recruiting, as well as, analyzing and tracking employment compensation or data. Qualifiers of building an AAP are subjected to random evaluations from the OFCCP. If violations are caught, the company is given a period of time to correct any offenses made as an attempt at a resolution from the OFCCP.

If the company still fails to comply even after this second chance, sanctions will be administered. Not only will they lose their government contract but the company will also be prohibited from doing any more businesses with government agencies. The victims will be compensated fairly. Additionally, the company might end up crippled after the lump sum of penalties and fees that it is liable to settle.

Comprehensive documentation of files and reports is crucial in case of an abrupt evaluation. Outreach efforts must be planned by contractors to attract qualified candidates that are PWDs and protected veterans. Employers must attain a benchmark of 7% for PWDs and 6.9% for protected veterans. Affiliating with organizations for veterans and PWDs can help them achieve this benchmark.

Moreover, results are expected of the outreach programs conducted by federal contractors. The total number of job openings and jobs filled, the total number of applicants for all jobs, the number of protected veteran applicants, the number of protected veterans hired, and the total figure of applicants hired comprise the list of documents that must be kept and updated annually. Documentation of these records must be kept intact for a time frame of three years.

AAPs must be customized according to the size of a company and the number of employees that it maintains. They must reflect the organizational structure, policies, practices, and programs employed by the contractor. Documents indicating employment policies and practices, as well as, materials involved in affirmative action efforts must be kept as evidence of compliance.

Federal contractors have to comply with a litany of regulations just to guarantee that everyone gets equal opportunities. Estimates show that larger companies spend roughly four hundred hours on annually updating and maintaining their AAPs. Additionally, they also spend around fifteen thousand dollars on hours spent by management and administrative departments keeping track of their affirmative action programs.

Seminars and even training programs are presented by the OFCCP for companies that need assistance in complying with these complex regulations. Companies may even hire expert legal teams to work around any issues that OFCCP compliance might pose. Huge consequences are on the line for companies that exhibit noncompliance, but even if this is the case, employers must genuinely extend a hand to give minorities chances for employment regardless of whether it is required of them or not.




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