On February 1, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs sent letters to 1,000 federal contractors notifying them of their selection for compliance evaluation audits. OFCCP informed employers that it will begin contacting the selected employers to schedule audits starting on March 19.

Federal contractors who receive audit scheduling notices have 30 days to submit their Affirmative Action Plans to OFCCP. The agency announced that it has changed its audit selection procedures to limit reviews to no more than 10 establishments of a single employer and no more than four establishments in a single OFCCP region. Once an establishment has closed an audit, OFCCP has extended its grace period for conducting another audit from two to five years.

The selection and scheduling letters were mailed to the individual targeted establishments. Human resource officers at federal contractors should alert each separate establishment within the company to immediately forward the letters to HR for review. Employers that receive a selection letter may want to consider undergoing a self-audit before receipt of the scheduling notice. These internal reviews can prepare the contractor for the actual OFCCP audit, and in some cases they provide the employer with an opportunity to correct plan deficiencies before the audit begins.