The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has issued its Directive (DIR) 2018-01 as part of ongoing efforts to increase transparency of preliminary findings with federal contractors, and to achieve consistency across regional and district offices, standardizing the use of Predetermination Notices (PDN). A PDN is a letter that OFCCP uses to inform federal contractors and subcontractors (contractors) of OFCCP’s preliminary findings of employment discrimination. Directive 2018-01 provides a uniform protocol for OFCCP staff to follow for using PDNs in both individual and systemic discrimination cases.
In recent years, PDNs were typically reserved for use only in systemic discrimination cases, leaving it to the regional and district offices’ discretion whether to issue a PDN prior to issuing a Notice of Violation (NOV). Under the Directive, compliance officers and other responsible staff are required to issue PDNs at the conclusion of compliance evaluations where the contractors have not provided adequate explanations to proposed discrimination findings.