From the Legal Group, Seyfarth and Shaw LLP
By Erin Dougherty Foley and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: These new regulations require federal agencies to be “model employers” of individuals with disabilities. As such, they now must take specific steps that are “reasonably designed” to gradually increase the number of employees who have a disability.
We had blogged previously about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), inviting the public to comment on how it should amend its regulations implementing Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and to clarify the federal government’s obligation to be a model employer of individuals with disabilities. 79 Fed. Reg. 27824 (May 15, 2014).
The regulations — which apply only to federal agencies — that previously implemented the Section 501 affirmative action requirement simply stated that the federal government shall be a “model employer of individuals with disabilities,” and that federal agencies shall “give full consideration to the hiring, placement, and advancement of qualified individuals with disabilities.”
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