In a rare decision involving the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the Labor Department’s (DOL) Administrative Review Board (ARB) has unanimously reversed a 2019 DOL administrative law judge’s (ALJ) ruling that a federal contractor violated Executive Order (E.O.) 11246 by committing hiring discrimination against thousands of African American job applicants. The ARB is the Secretary of Labor-appointed tribunal that has the final say in contested DOL administrative enforcement proceedings.
The ARB’s decision in OFCCP v. Enterprise RAC Co. of Baltimore, LLC, ARB Case No. 2019-0072 (2021), which is dated November 3, 2021, but was just recently posted, found that the ALJ made legal errors and failed to follow the proper legal standards in concluding that hiring disparities allegedly committed by Enterprise were the result of intentional racial discrimination, and that Enterprise’s policies or selection practices caused disparate impact on African American applicants. As a result, the case has been remanded to a different ALJ for further proceedings consistent with the ARB’s ruling.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.