Celebrating Black History Month
This Black History Month, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs celebrates Black Americans and their incredible contributions in shaping our nation in all areas of American life. Just over a year ago, President Biden issued Executive Order 13985, setting forth the Administration’s policy of “[a]ffirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity.” President Biden has made racial equity a core pillar of his agenda and and has previously stated that we must “rebuild our economy in a way that finally brings everyone along — and that starts by rooting out systemic racism from our laws, our policies, our institutions, and our hearts.”
As our nation makes critical investments in our infrastructure, OFCCP has an important role to play in ensuring an equitable future for workers. Our longstanding mission is to protect workers, promote diversity through equal employment opportunity, and enforce the legal and contractual promise of nondiscrimination and affirmative action applicable to federal contractors and subcontractors. We are committed to tackling employment policies and practices that create barriers to opportunity and perpetuate inequality.
Last month, we teamed up with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and launched the Hiring Initiative to Reimagine Equity (HIRE),a multi-year collaborative effort that will engage a broad array of stakeholders to expand access to good jobs for workers from underrepresented communities and help address key hiring and recruiting challenges. We are committed to helping ensure that as our nation recovers from the pandemic, we build an inclusive economy that works for everyone.
In FY 21, we were able to recover more than $4.8 million for more than 8,700 Black workers who we found to have experienced workplace discrimination. Notable OFCCP resolutions on behalf of Black workers include the following:
- On Oct. 6, 2021, DOL announced that OFCCP and Aecom Management Services entered into an agreement to resolve allegations of hiring discrimination against 67 Black applicants for aircraft worker positions. Aecom agreed to pay $205,000 in back wages and interest to the affected applicants.
- On Oct. 6, 2021, DOL announced that OFCCP and Thomson Reuters Corp. entered into a conciliation agreement to resolve alleged pay discrimination against 113 female, Black and Hispanic employees working in administrative and technical professional and client specialist positions. Thomson Reuters Corp. agreed to pay $550,000 in back wages and interest to the affected class members and former employees. The company will also provide pay equity training for individuals involved in compensation decisions, including managers and human resources workers.
At OFCCP, we will continue to work tirelessly to tackle employment discrimination impacting Black workers and help covered federal contractors and subcontractors provide equitable workplaces.
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