The Department of Labor (DOL) recently released its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2011-2016. The plan is about workers, accountability and doing what works. The Plan includes the five following goals:

1. Prepare workers for good jobs and ensure fair compensation
2. Ensure workplaces are safe and healthy
3. Assure fair and high quality worklife environments
4. Secure health benefits, and for those not working, provide income security
5. Produce timely and accurate data on the economic conditions of workers and their families

OFCCP will play a major role in supporting the DOL's goals by investigating "all discriminatory practices within its purview and enforce the requirements for effective affirmative action programs to ensure that federal contractors are committed to advancing equal employment opportunity for and engaging in outreach to minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and covered veterans. Since federal contractors are obligated to self-audit and correct identified problem areas, consistent with the Department’s Plan/Prevent/Protect strategy, OFCCP will dedicate additional resources to increase monitoring of this element of compliance. OFCCP will also strengthen its relationship with the contractor community and develop a comprehensive stakeholder outreach strategy, serving the needs of minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and covered veterans. OFCCP is placing greater emphasis on enforcement and focusing on identifying and resolving both individual and systemic discrimination. Additionally, OFCCP will provide increased attention to countering discrimination against individuals with disabilities and covered veterans."

OFCCP will support Goal 1 - "prepare workers for good jobs and ensure fair compensation" by increasing workers’ incomes and narrow wage & income inequality and helping workers who are in low wage jobs or out of the labor market find a path into middle class jobs.

OFCCP will support Goal 3 - "assure fair and high quality worklife environments" by ensuring diversity and fairness in federal contractor workplaces, breaking down barriers to fair and diverse workplaces so that every worker’s contribution is respected and ensuring the worker's voice in the workplace.

The OFCCP is taking a new approach that includes broadening its enforcement efforts to include both individual and systemic discrimination, targeting recidivism of discrimination by contractors and conducting corporate wide multi-establishment reviews as well as industry-specific reviews.

Progress will be monitored through the following performance measures:

* Compliance rate for federal contractors
* Impact of OFCCP evaluations on contractor compliance
* Discrimination rate for federal contractors
* Compliance rate with technical requirements for federal contractors

Click here for the full DOL Strategic Plan, click here to read further about the DOL's new approach to measuring performance and click here to view the OFCCP's agency overview in support of the DOL strategic goals.

For more information visit www.carlairwininc.com
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