OFCCP Formally Eliminates the Equal Opportunity Survey as a Regulatory Requirement

OFCCP published a final rule in the Federal Register today which formally removes from the agency’s regulations the Equal Opportunity (EO) Survey. The EO Survey requirement was added to OFCCP’s regulations in November, 2000. Immediately thereafter, in January, 2001, OFCCP sent out 50,000 EO Surveys to contractors.

Morgan Lewis submitted comments in support of OFCCP’s proposal to eliminate the EO Survey, and OFCCP pointed to Morgan Lewis’s comments several times in the preamble of the final rule. In particular, OFCCP quoted Morgan Lewis’s comments at length to the effect that the EO Survey does not serve as a useful basis for conducting self-audit analyses because the data fails to compare similarly situated employees and does not control for any legitimate, nondiscriminatory factors that affect hiring, promotion, compensation, and termination decisions. The EO Survey was extremely burdensome to contractors, and OFCCP’s action to eliminate it certainly will provide welcome relief.

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