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Law360 (April 9, 2020, 4:32 PM EDT) -- More than 50 civil rights organizations have urged the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs not to temporarily exempt federal contractors providing coronavirus relief from certain affirmative action obligations, noting that people of color and other marginalized communities have been hit hardest by the pandemic.
The groups, which include the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Economic Justice Project, asked the U.S. Department of Labor's OFCCP in a Tuesday letter to revoke the national interest exemption issued by the agency March 17.
"While a robust federal response to the coronavirus pandemic is essential, there is no justification for suspending crucial civil rights protections during this public health emergency," the groups said.
According to the letter, the waiver temporarily frees contractors and their subcontractors from having to comply with certain anti-discrimination laws and their requirements, including writing affirmative action plans, informing state agencies about vacancies and including anti-discrimination provisions in their job postings.
The organizations called the waiver "unjustifiably broad," saying it "undermines both affirmative action and antidiscrimination obligations" and that many of the waived requirements take minimal resources to comply with.
Though the federal government should be making sure that contractors responding to COVID-19 are actively recruiting and promoting the opportunities created by the crisis to the most impacted groups — "people of color and other historically marginalized communities," the letter noted — the agency's March memo did the opposite, the groups contended.
"By suspending the critical affirmative action programs, the OFCCP will cause substantial harm to the communities hardest hit by the economic and health crisis in direct contradiction to its stated mission and purpose," they said.
The organizations said the OFCCP needs to take a lesson from the high rates of unemployment for black people in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina when the OFCCP issued a similar national interest exemption.
If the waiver isn't revoked, it should be narrowed and not extended beyond its current three-month expiration date in June, according to the letter, which was signed by a total of 56 groups, including Lambda Legal, the NAACP and the SPLC Action Fund.
A March report by DOL's Office of Inspector General found the OFCCP didn't sufficiently enforce equal employment opportunity laws on federal construction contracts. In the performance audit, the office looked at the processes and data from Oct. 1, 2013, to March 31, 2019.
The OFCCP didn't respond Thursday to a request for comment.
--Editing by Marygrace Murphy.
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