ANNUAL EEO-1 FILING DUE SEPTEMBER 2013

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) mandates that employers account for their workforces by race, ethnicity and gender. Generally, all employers with more than 100 employees, or federal contractors with 50 or more employees and contracts of $50,000 or more, must file an EEO-1 form by September 30 of each calendar year. Employers with fewer than 100 employees which are affiliated with another company or having centralized ownership, control or management constitute a single enterprise for the purpose of the EEOC. The standard form is required by law; it is not voluntary! It serves as a statistical measure for both the EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance. However, the EEO-1 can be a valuable and effective tool for companies in evaluating their own internal programs for insuring equal employment opportunity. Failure of a federal contractor or subcontractor to submit the EEO-1 may result in a court order to compel compliance. Additionally, failure of a federal contractor or subcontractor to comply way result in termination of its federal government contract and debarment from future such contracts.

The form EEO-1 utilizes data from any pay period between July through September which must include all full-time and part-time employees during the selected payroll period. Employees are calculated by sex and race or ethnic category for each of the ten occupational categories and subcategories. Each employee is reported in only one job category.

The preferred method for identifying race and ethnic information, as well as veterans status, self-identification. Employers must allow employees to use self-identification to complete an EEO-1 report. If an employee declines to self-identify, employment records or observer identification may be used. EEO-1 reports should be maintained separately from the basic personnel file or other records available to those responsible for personnel decisions.

The EEO-1 report has evolved over time. It now permits self-identification as multi-racial. Employers must categorize management into levels based on degree of responsibility.

Employers must be aware that ALL employers with 15 or more employees are covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the enabling statute under which EEOC derives its authority. Therefore, such employers, although not required by law to subject annual EEO-1 reports, should consider utilizing the self-identification form as a means of tracking their own equal opportunity efforts. This can be a powerful tool in litigation asserting employment discrimination and violation of Title VII.