OFCCP Publishes 2022 Corporate Scheduling Announcement List for Upcoming Audit

On May 20, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) released its 2022 Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL), which notifies 400 supply and service establishments (locations) of upcoming audits. Federal contractors should immediately review the 2022 CSAL because it serves as the only advance notification to contractors of upcoming audits.

The CSAL also specifies the type of audit the contractor will undergo: Full Compliance Review (Establishment Review), Corporate Management Compliance Evaluation (CMCE) or Functional Affirmative Action Program (FAAP) Review.

Although rare, federal contractors not identified on the CSAL still may be selected for an audit in certain circumstances, such as “a complaint, contract award notice, or as a result of a conciliation agreement or consent decree progress report monitoring.” Furthermore, the new CSAL does not affect any audits that appeared on the previous CSAL but have yet to be completed.

The OFCCP concurrently published its methodology for selecting the contractors for the list. The OFCCP explained that it applied the following criteria in selecting establishments for the CSAL:

• The OFCCP included federal contractors and federal subcontractors in this CSAL. This is the first year the OFCCP has focused on subcontractors.
• For prime contractors, the OFCCP consolidated prime contract records at the parent level to determine all contracts held by each parent company. The agency then extracted all EEO-1 establishment units for all parent records and identified units with at least 50 employees to be included in the pool of eligible federal contractors. For subcontractors, the OFCCP identified units with at least 50 employees based on the EEO-1 filings of the subcontractor. The use of the 50-employee minimum reflects the OFCCP lowering the threshold from its past practice of excluding establishments with less than 70 employees at the establishment.
• The OFCCP focused on industries that experienced employment growth during the pandemic — that is, industries in which the average hiring rate increased after March 2020 compared to the hiring rates in the years before the pandemic (2014–2020). The 2022 CSAL includes many industries expected to receive federal investments targeted towards infrastructure and economic recovery.
• The OFCCP used EEO-1 data to determine instances where demographic group representation differed from industry and local labor market averages. It incorporated that data to conduct predictive modeling, which it used to select establishments for the CSAL.
• The OFCCP did not include more than four establishments of any parent company.
• The OFCCP selected two CMCE reviews per region using the same methodology as establishment reviews. For FAAP reviews, the OFCCP chose two functional units with the highest employee count in each region.

New for 2022, the OFCCP will assign the compliance reviews of parent companies that have three or four establishments on the CSAL to the same regional office to improve efficiency. Which regional and district offices the OFCCP will assign depends on available staff. Historically, the OFCCP assigned the regional and district offices local to the establishment to manage each audit, which meant that a contractor with multiple audits would work with different offices, depending on the location of each establishment. For this CSAL, only parent companies with one or two establishments may be assigned different OFCCP regions and district offices.

Contractors should also keep in mind that the OFCCP is no longer delaying scheduling contractors for 45 days after it issues the CSAL. The OFCCP has announced that it may begin issuing the Office of Management and Budget-approved Compliance Check Scheduling Letter — which commences the compliance evaluation process — upon the publication of the CSAL. Once a contractor receives the Scheduling Letter, the contractor usually has only 30 days to submit their Affirmative Action Programs (AAPs) and contractor records to the OFCCP. Accordingly, contractors identified on the CSAL immediately should ensure their AAPs are legally compliant and evaluate any additional compliance efforts required by federal regulations.

If you have any questions about the CSAL or other OFCCP compliance issues, please contact one of the Faegre Drinker professionals below.