Members of Congress are questioning whether the Department of Labor has the authority to require employers to set goals for hiring hiring disabled workers.
The inquiry concerns the propriety — and practicality — of proposed rules announced late last year by DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs requiring federal contractors to institute hiring goals. Specifically, the agency wants federal contractors to aim to have 7 percent of their workforce be made up by individuals with disabilities.
Congress has expressed concern that this “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 letter outlines six areas of concern and asks OFCCP to respond to each point by Friday, Feb. 10. Specifically, Congress wants OFCCP to explain how Section 503 grants it authority to establish a hiring goal; why it believes contractors’ good faith affirmative actions have been insufficient; whether the ADA allows contractors to ask applicants to self-identify as individuals with disabilities; and how it calculated its estimates with respect to how much time contractors would need to dedicate to compliance, among other things.
The committee also requested the OFCCP extend the period during which it will accept public comment on the proposal. Currently, the comment period is set to expire Tuesday, Feb. 7.
It is unclear, however, whether OFCCP will comply with the committee’s request. It has previously denied such requests from other entities.
The HR Policy Association, for example, requested an extension shortly after the NRPM was released, but its request was denied. “We are deeply disappointed that OFCCP would not allow the public enough time to thoroughly review the proposal,” the association said in a response to news of the denial. “The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs … took 191 days to review and comment on the proposal prior to its publication, yet OFCCP has provided the public with only 60 days, including the holiday period[.]”
EEOIMPACT LLC, an employment consulting firm, also unsuccessfully requested that OFCCP extend its deadline. The company reported being told only that the OFCCP “cannot grant an extension of the comment period at this time.”