Last month’s controversial Executive Order 13950 will require federal contracts awarded after November 22, 2020, to contain a clause by which contractors agree to refrain from inculcating “race or sex stereotyping” or “race or sex scapegoating” (as those terms are defined in the Order) in training to their employees. We described the Order in more detail here. Suffice it to say, the implications related to workplace diversity training have raised significant issues regarding the scope and content of such training among federal contractors.

Part and parcel to that Executive Order was the direction to the Department of Labor to request information from federal contractors regarding the workplace diversity trainings presently being provided to contractor employees. On October 22, 2020, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued a formal Request for Information which sheds additional light on the restrictions the Executive Order will ultimately place on workplace diversity training by federal contractors.