With the record partial government shutdown continuing and no end in sight, employers' EEO-1 filing obligations appear to be on hold. Typically, by this time, employers that filed EEO-1 reports in the past should have received postcards from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reflecting company log-in information for the EEO-1 web portal. However, those postcards have not gone out, and the EEO-1 web portal is not accessible. Instead, attempts to log in redirect users to a general announcement about the EEOC's operations during the government shutdown. That announcement provides information about charge intake, FOIA requests, and mediation, but it does not indicate the timeline or procedures for EEO-1 filing.
Although no formal announcement has been issued regarding any extension of the March 31, 2019 filing deadline, it seems unlikely that employers will be held to that timeline. Nonetheless, to avoid what could become a rushed process when the EEOC comes back online, companies should begin to prepare their EEO-1 reports as originally scheduled, using workforce data from one payroll in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Other recommended practices for employers preparing their EEO-1 reports include:
- Using visual survey or other available information to identify the sex and race or ethnicity of employees that choose not to self-identify. Employers are not permitted to omit employees of unknown status from the EEO-1 report.
- Determining the most appropriate payroll period from which to pull the workforce snapshot; and
- For federal contractors, making sure that their EEO-1 establishments properly align with their affirmative action plan establishments.
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