EEOC Informal Discussion Letter

EEOC Office of Legal Counsel staff members wrote the following letter to respond to a request for public comment from a federal agency or department. This letter is an informal discussion of the noted issue and does not constitute an official opinion of the Commission.

Coordination/EEO Practices and DOL VETS Report

October 5, 2006

Robert Wilson
Chief
Division of Investigation and Compliance, VETS
U.S. Department of Labor
Room S-1316
200 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20210

Re: RIN Number 1293-AA12
Annual Report from Federal Contractors

Dear Mr. Wilson:

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Commission or EEOC) submits these comments to the Department of Labor, Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) about VETS’ notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the annual report from federal contractors. 71 Fed. Reg. 44945 (August 7, 2006). We recommend that VETS conform the definition of “job category” discussed in the NPRM to the definitions provided in the EEOC’s new Employer Information Report (EEO-1) that is to be used by employers beginning in the 2007 reporting cycle.

As the government’s lead agency on equal employment opportunity, the EEOC coordinates with other federal agencies on issues affecting the consistent enforcement of equal employment opportunity laws. See Executive Order 12067, 43 Fed. Reg. 28967 (July 5, 1978). The Commission enforces the federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., which prohibits discrimination on the bases of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. One of the Commission’s enforcement tools for Title VII is the EEO-1, which is used to collect annual workforce data from many private employers and federal contractors about the sex, ethnicity, race and job categories of employees.

The NPRM defines “job category” as used in the VETS-100 report by reference to the job categories provided in the EEO-1. However, the job categories described in the NPRM parallel the job categories used for the final time in the 2006 EEO-1 reporting period, which ended on September 30, 2006. The Commission approved revised job categories in late 2005, and these new categories are to be used by employers beginning in the 2007 reporting cycle. The reporting requirements proposed in the VETS’ NPRM are to become effective for the calendar year 2007; therefore the definitions provided therein should conform to the revised EEO-1 job categories. For a description of these revised categories, please refer to the EEOC’s Notice of Final Notice of Submission for OMB Review of the EEO-1, found at 70 Fed. Reg. 71294, 71302 (November 28, 2005).

Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments in response to the proposed rule. If you have any questions or would like to discuss these comments, please feel free to contact Carol Miaskoff, Assistant Legal Counsel, at 202-663- or Kerry Leibig, Senior Attorney Advisor, at 202-663- .

Sincerely,

Peggy R. Mastroianni
Associate Legal Counsel

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