On September 7, 2018, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) sent a second round of Corporate Scheduling Announcement Letters (CSALs) to 750 contractor establishments.1 The CSAL serves as OFCCP's "heads up" letter to a contractor that its establishment is on the current compliance evaluation scheduling list.

Under the CSAL Update published on OFCCP's website, the letters give contractors a 45-day courtesy notice period prior to OFCCP's sending out the official compliance evaluation scheduling letter. Under this approach, we do not expect OFCCP to mail official letters until October 22, 2018. Once a contractor receives the official scheduling letter, the contractor will have the standard 30 days to submit its Affirmative Action Program (AAP) and required supporting data. As a result, OFCCP is providing contractors on the current scheduling list with at least 75 days of advance notice.

Contractors accustomed to seeking an extension for submitting AAPs and supporting data should review carefully the new FAQ regarding extensions. Under this new FAQ, OFCCP will provide a 30-day extension for supporting data2 related to the AAPs if (1) the contractor requests the extension prior to the initial 30-day due date and (2) the contractor timely submits the basic AAPs within the initial 30-day window. OFCCP generally will not allow extensions for submission of the basic AAPs because contractors must maintain and update these programs annually.

Some interesting notes related to the second round of CSALs:

  • This round does not include Focused Reviews;
  • OFCCP removed all establishments with contracts expiring on or before December 31, 2018 from the available pool of eligible establishments;
  • No establishment that received a CSAL, concluded a review, or concluded progress report monitoring resulting from a conciliation agreement or consent decree, within the last 5 years, is included in this round;
  • This round includes 445 companies, 69 Corporate Management Compliance Evaluations (CMCEs), and 66 Functional Affirmative Action Program (FAAP) functional units;
  • No universities are included;
  • Combining both CSAL rounds, OFCCP has limited its scheduling to no more than 10 establishments of any parent company; and
  • No more than 4 establishments of a single contractor are included in a single district office in this round.

OFCCP mails CSALs to the Human Resource Director (or designated point of contact) of each establishment on the scheduling list. Contractors may confirm whether an establishment was mailed a CSAL by e-mailing a written request on company letterhead to the Division of Program Operations at OFCCP-DPO-Scheduling@dol.gov.

Littler will continue to monitor OFCCP's website for any additional information regarding the second round of CSALs. Meanwhile, we recommend that contractors that receive a CSAL begin to proactively prepare for the official scheduling letter given OFCCP's new position on granting extensions.

Footnotes

1 According to OFCCP, it is releasing this second round of CSALs to insure that its district and area offices have a sufficient number of establishments to schedule for compliance reviews until a new scheduling list is released, likely in early 2019.

2 Supporting data refers to Items 15-22 in OFCCP's Itemized Listing that is attached to the OMB-approved scheduling letter.

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