In yesterday’s Advisor, BLR Senior Legal Editor and affirmative action expert Susan Schoenfeld clarified the main aspects of the new affirmative action requirements for people with disabilities. Today, four more requirements, plus an introduction to SmartPolicies®, BLR’s popular collection of prewritten HR policies.
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In addition to the major changes discussed in yesterday’s Advisor, there are several other important changes that are included in the final Section 503 rule, says Schoenfeld.
Definitions
The definition of “disability” has been revised, pursuant to the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) of 2008.
EO Clause
Contractors will be required to state in solicitations and advertisements that they are equal employment opportunity employers of individuals with disabilities. The Final Rule permits contractors to incorporate the EO Clause into subcontracts by reference, but only by citing the EO Clause in the regulations and including OFCCP’s mandatory clause in bold text.
Electronic Posting
When the contractor has employees who do not work at the contractor’s physical location, the OFCCP will allow a contractor to satisfy its posting obligation by posting the EEO notice in electronic format, provided that the contractor either provides these employees with computers that can access the electronic posting or has actual knowledge that the electronically posted notice is accessible to its employees.
BLR’s SmartPolicies gives you 350 HR policies, prewritten for you, ready to customize or use as is. Click Here
Compliance Evaluations
The Final Rule cements OFCCP’s position that it may obtain information pertinent to a compliance evaluation for periods after the date of the scheduling letter. The rule states that the OFCCP may extend the temporal scope of an evaluation and examine information after the date of the compliance evaluation scheduling letter, if the OFCCP deems it necessary to carry out its investigation of potential Section 503 violations.
Contractors must inform the OFCCP of the format(s) in which they maintain records and other information (e.g., Word, pdf, Excel), and provide the records and information to the OFCCP in the available format(s) the OFCCP selects (from the contractor’s available formats).
The OFCCP may also request that the contractor provide documents either on-site or off-site during compliance checks and that the OFCCP may conduct focused reviews both on-site and off-site.
Outreach and Recruiting
The Final Rule does not mandate that contractors list employment opportunities with the American Job Centers, nor does it require that contractors enter into linkage agreements. Instead, the final rule requires that contractors undertake "appropriate outreach and positive recruitment activities," and the rule provides a number of suggested resources that contractors may use to carry out these general outreach and recruitment obligations.
Contractors must document all outreach and recruitment activities and retain those records for 3 years.
New AA regs mean a new policy, no doubt. What’s the status of your policy on recruiting and hiring? And, what about all those other policies that you need? Our editors estimate that for most companies, there are 50 or so policies that need regular updating (or maybe need to be written). It’s easy to let policies slide, but you can’t afford to—your policies are your only hope for consistent and compliant management that avoids lawsuits.
Fortunately, BLR’s editors have done most of the work for you in their extraordinary program called SmartPolicies.
Don’t struggle with creating compliant HR policies! We’ve already written them for you, and at less than $1 each. Click Here.
SmartPolicies’ expert authors have already worked through the critical issues on some 100 policy topics and have prewritten the policies for you.
In all, SmartPolicies contains some 350 policies, arranged alphabetically from absenteeism and blogging to cell phone safety, EEO, voice mail, and workers’ compensation. What’s more, the CD format makes these policies easily customizable. Just add your company specifics or use as is.
Just as important, as regulations and court decisions clarify your responsibilities on workplace issues, the policies are updated—or new ones are added—as needed, every quarter, as a standard part of the program.
SmartPolicies is available to HR Daily Advisor subscribers on a 30-day evaluation basis at no cost or risk … even for return postage. If you’d like to have a look at it, let us know, and we’ll be happy to arrange it.
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