The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is providing strategies for employers to expand employment opportunities for workers with unemployment gaps. And there’s also a double-secret EEO-1 Component 1 Report filing extension.
Employing the unemployed
Last week, the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) hosted today a virtual roundtable titled “Untapped Potential: Reimagining Equity for Workers with Gaps in Employment History.” Part of the HIRE Initiative, the roundtable focused on challenges workers face when reentering the workforce after periods of unemployment.
The program addressed how businesses can grow by attracting and retaining a diverse talent pool, which includes people with gaps in their employment history for various reasons. Caregiving responsibilities or pregnancy may explain these gaps — disproportionately mothers and people of color. Employers who pass on these candidates based on protected-class status risk discrimination claims.
If you missed the roundtable, you can watch the replay on EEOC’s YouTube channel.
Extra time to file your EEO-1s
Last night, I read a blog post — and I’m sorry that I can’t remember which one — but it included a link to an EEOC FAQ. That FAQ indicates that employers that miss the May 17, 2022 EEO-1 filing deadline seemingly have a one-month grace period to file.
Form the FAQ:
Yes. Following the May 17, 2022 published deadline, the EEOC will enter the “failure to file” phase. All filers who have not submitted and certified their mandatory 2021 EEO-1 Component 1 Report(s) by the Tuesday, May 17, 2022 published deadline will receive a notice of failure to file instructing them to submit and certify their data AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, and NO LATER THAN TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022. This additional time, through Tuesday, June 21st, 2022, will be available to ALL filers who have not submitted and certified their 2021 EEO-1 Component 1 Report(s) by the May 17, 2022 published deadline.
Please be advised that AFTER the June 21, 2022 deadline passes, NO additional 2021 EEO-1 Component 1 Reports will be accepted, and eligible filers will be out of compliance with their mandatory 2021 EEO-1 Component 1 filing obligation.