Regulations requiring federal contractors to implement disability hiring goals will be issued in April 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor announced last week.
A year ago, DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs proposed a mandate that would require contractors to aim to have individuals with disabilities make up 7 percent of their workforce.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (41 C.F.R. 77056) said the goal is intended “to establish a benchmark against which the contractor must measure the representation of individuals within each job group in its workforce.” It will serve as an “objective that should be attainable by complying with all aspects of the affirmative action requirements” of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The rule will strengthen the affirmative action requirements established in Section 503, according to OFCCP. Despite the law’s requirement that federal contractors and subcontractors make a good faith effort to recruit and hire workers with disabilities, the unemployment rate of such individuals remains disproportionately high. “Clearly, that’s not working,” Patricia A. Shiu, director of OFCCP said in a statement. These new regulations will require real accountability, she said.
The regulations also will increase data collection obligations and change recordkeeping requirements, according to OFCCP.
When the NPRM was issued, Congress expressed concern that the goal would amount to a quota. Furthermore, “[w]e question the legal authority under Section 503 permitting OFCCP to establish a numerical hiring standard,” members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce wrote in a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis.
The April deadline for the final regulations was announced in DOL’s fall 2012 regulatory agenda.
For additional information about employers’ requirements, see Thompson’s employment law library, including the ADA Compliance Guide.