March 4, 2011 Are You Ready For a Desk Audit? ACM Versus ACE

Are you ready for a desk audit? The OFCCP’s Active Case Management (ACM) was replaced by Active Case Enforcement on January 1. There are five main differences between ACM and ACE: (1) Compliance evaluation – under ACM, the compliance review method was used. Under ACE, all compliance evaluation methodologies – including the compliance check – will be used; (2) Size of protected group – ACM focused on cases of systemic discrimination where there were ten or more affected class members. ACE does not have a minimum number of affected class members; (3) Desk audits – under ACM, desk audits were performed only when there was an indication of discrimination, or alternatively, in every 25th review. Under ACE, all compliance evaluations will begin with a full desk audit; (4) Evidence of discrimination – anecdotal and statistical evidence were considered under ACM. ACE considers anecdotal and statistical evidence, but also looks at patterns of individual discrimination, technical violations (for example, recordkeeping and records retention) and failure to comply with other laws; (5) Onsite reviews – Under ACM, onsite reviews were limited to the indicators triggering the review. Under ACE, onsite reviews will be comprehensive and not limited in scope. In this week’s installment of The Proactive Employer podcast, we’ll be discussing the differences between Active Case Management and Active Case Enforcement in more detail, and talk about what this change means for employers.