Contract Compliance Law May Improve Opportunities

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) plans to strengthen proposed revisions to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

“It’s going to put some real accountability behind the law and improve employment opportunities for millions of Americans with disabilities,” OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu said. “We are serious about integrating all Americans into the workforce.”

About 80 percent of working-age people with disabilities were out of the labor force in 2010, and even those who are still actively engaged in the workforce face an unemployment rate of nearly 17 percent—almost twice the national average.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires contractors to make “good faith” efforts to recruit, hire, promote, and fairly compensate people with disabilities, including veterans returning from battle with service-related disabilities.

Good faith isn’t cutting it, Shiu said. “Even though the Rehab Act has been on the books for 38 years, the percentage of people with disabilities who are unemployed—or not even in the labor force— is incredibly high.”

According to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 20.6 percent of people with disabilities were in the labor force in April of 2010, compared to almost 70 percent of people without disabilities.

There are indications that some federal contractors may have been skirting existing rules, a Department of Labor (DOL) spokesperson said.

Penalties for violating the law include issuing a notice of violation, working with the company to correct bad practices, establishing linkage agreements to connect employers with disability groups, requiring violations to make restitution (money, job offers, benefits, interest, etc.) to those affected and, in the cases of the worst offenders, canceling the companies’ existing federal contracts, and barring them from entering future contracts until violations are corrected.

Rule changes are due soon, according to the DOL, although the exact date has not yet been announced.

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