1 / 8

NPRM to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

NPRM to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Purpose. Prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities to gain, retain, and advance in employment with federal contractors and subcontractors.

hoyt-burgess
Download Presentation

NPRM to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. NPRM to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

  2. Purpose • Prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities to gain, retain, and advance in employment with federal contractors and subcontractors. • Enact Affirmative Action standards for federal contractors and subcontractors to increase the employment of individuals with disabilities in the workforce. • Incorporate changes into the regulations necessitated by the ADAAA- Bringing 503 into line with the ADAAA will expand the definition of disability and protections to mirror those offered under the ADAAA, which now includes an estimated 1 in 5 Americans. • Clarify confusing language that exists in current 503 regulations to clearly identify the sections that are mandatory and to specify the timeframe for the conduct of required reviews.

  3. Hiring Goal • The NPRM proposes that federal contractors set a hiring goal of 7% of their employees to be workers with disabilities. This goal will be across job groups as are reported in the contractor’s written affirmative action plan. While a contractor would be violating the law by not meeting the goal; there will be no penalty assessed by OFCCP for non-compliance. However, non-compliance will prompt a more in-depth review of the contractor’s personnel policies and practices.

  4. Review Personnel Processes • Vacancies and training programs for which applicants and employees with disabilities are considered, • Document the reasons explaining the circumstances for rejecting individuals with disabilities for vacancies and in training programs, • Document description of the reasonable accommodations that were considered; and • Describe the nature and type of accommodations for individuals with disabilities who in fact were selected for hire, promotion, or training programs.

  5. Invitation to Self-Identify • The proposal is designed to improve collection of data on employment of people with disabilities by modifying the invitation for workers to self-identify and will require that contractors invite all applicants to voluntarily self-identify as an “individual with a disability” at the pre-offer stage of the hiring process • Contractors would also be required to invite post-offer voluntary self-identification and to survey all employees annually to invite their self-identification in an anonymous manner. In regards to the annual survey and accuracy of data collection, it is important to note that an employee may become disabled at any time, surveying all employees annually will ensure that the most accurate data possible is available to assist both contractors and OFCCP in evaluating and refining affirmative action efforts over time. • Under the proposal, contractors would be required to invite applicants to self-identify using the language and manner prescribed by the OFCCP Director and published on the OFCCP website. By mandating the text of the invitation OFCCP will help ensure that individuals with disabilities who may be reluctant to self-identify will be reminded of the legitimacy and the limited nature of the inquiry, and may over time foster self-identification by individuals with disabilities.

  6. Linkage • Require specific outreach and recruitment (3 linkage agreements) • Required job delivery to Local Career One Stops • Linkage agreement with State VR or local Employment Network • One additional linkage agreement with following entities: • Disabled veterans organization • Center for Independent Living • Work One/Career One Stop • Local Community Rehabilitation Provider • University Career Center • Mandate job listing requirements and delivery requirements with state workforce agency

  7. Written Reasonable Accommodations Procedures • For the first time, the proposed revisions would require that contractors develop and implement written procedures for processing requests for reasonable accommodation. This proposal is similar to the federal sector requirements, which were established some years ago by executive order. A number of large companies will already have written reasonable accommodation procedures and implementation requirements should be minimal.

  8. Additional Information • OFFCP NPRM 503 Webinar: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/Presentation/Proposed_%20Sec503_Revisions_Webinar.pdf • OFCCP NPRM 503 FAQ’s: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/faqs/Section503_NPRM_faq.htm \

More Related