[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 160 (Monday, August 23, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47104-47105]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-17931]


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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Extension Without 
Change of an Existing Collection; Comments Request

AGENCY: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) announces 
that it is submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a 
request for a three-year extension without change of the existing 
recordkeeping requirements under its regulations.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before 
September 22, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Oram, Assistant Legal 
Counsel, at (202) 921-2665 or [email protected], or Erin Norris, 
Senior Attorney, at (980) 296-1286 or [email protected]. Requests 
for this notice in an alternative format should be made to the Office 
of Communications and Legislative Affairs at (202) 921-3191 (voice), 
(800) 669-6820 (TTY), or (844) 234-5122 (ASL Video Phone).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 
(EEOC) enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), 
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Title II of 
the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), which 
collectively prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, 
religion, sex, national origin, disability, or genetic information. 
Section 709(c) of Title VII, section 107(a) of the ADA, and section 
207(a) of GINA authorize the EEOC to issue recordkeeping and reporting 
regulations that are deemed reasonable, necessary or appropriate. The 
EEOC has promulgated recordkeeping regulations under those authorities 
that are contained in 29 CFR part 1602. These regulations do not 
require the creation of any particular records but generally require 
employers and labor organizations to preserve any personnel and 
employment records they make or keep for a period of one year or two 
years, and possibly longer if a charge of discrimination is filed. The 
EEOC seeks an extension without change of OMB's clearance under the PRA 
of these recordkeeping requirements.
    A notice that EEOC would be submitting this request was published 
in the Federal Register on May 26, 2021, allowing for a 60-day public 
comment period. One comment was received from the public; however, the 
comment did not address EEOC's recordkeeping requirements. Accordingly, 
no changes have been made to the requirements based upon the comment.

Overview of Current Information Collection

    Collection Title: Recordkeeping Under Title VII, the ADA, and GINA.
    OMB Number: 3046-0040.
    Description of Affected Public: Employers and labor organizations 
subject to Title VII.
    Number of Respondents: 989,379.
    Number of Reports Submitted: 0.
    Estimated Burden Hours: 162,223.
    Cost to Respondents: $0.
    Federal Cost: None.
    Number of Forms: None.
    Abstract: Section 709(c) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 
1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-8(c), section 107(a) of the ADA, 42 
U.S.C. 12117(a), and section 207(a) of GINA, 42 U.S.C. 2000ff-6(a), 
direct the Commission to establish regulations pursuant to which 
entities subject to those Acts shall make and preserve certain records 
to assist the EEOC in ensuring compliance with the Acts' prohibitions 
on employment discrimination. Accordingly, the EEOC issued regulations 
setting out recordkeeping requirements for private

[[Page 47105]]

employers (29 CFR 1602.14); employers, labor organizations, and joint 
labor-management committees that control apprenticeship programs (29 
CFR 1602.21(b)); labor organizations (29 CFR 1602.28(a)); state and 
local governments (29 CFR 1602.31); elementary and secondary school 
systems or districts (29 CFR 1602.40); and institutions of higher 
education (29 CFR 1602.49(a)). Any of the records maintained which are 
subsequently disclosed to the EEOC during an investigation are 
protected from public disclosure by the confidentiality provisions of 
section 706(b) and 709(e) of Title VII, which are also incorporated by 
reference into the ADA at section 107(a) and GINA at section 207(a).
    Burden Statement: The estimated number of respondents subject to 
this recordkeeping requirement is 989,379 entities, which combines 
estimates from private employment,\1\ the public sector,\2\ colleges 
and universities,\3\ apprenticeship programs,\4\ and referral 
unions.\5\ An entity subject to the recordkeeping requirement in 29 CFR 
part 1602 must retain all personnel or employment records, records 
relating to apprenticeship, or union membership or referral records 
made or kept by that entity for one year (private employers and 
referral unions) or two years (public sector, colleges and 
universities, apprenticeship programs), and must retain any records 
relevant to charges of discrimination filed under Title VII, the ADA, 
or GINA until final disposition of those matters, which may be longer 
than one or two years. This recordkeeping requirement does not require 
reports or the creation of new documents, but merely requires retention 
of documents that an entity has already made or kept in the normal 
course of its business operations. Thus, existing employers and labor 
organizations bear no burden under this analysis, because their systems 
for retaining these types of records are already in place. Newly formed 
entities may incur a small burden when setting up their data collection 
and retention systems to ensure compliance with EEOC's recordkeeping 
requirements. We assume some effort and time must be expended by new 
employers or labor organizations to familiarize themselves with Title 
VII, ADA, and GINA recordkeeping requirements and explain those 
requirements to the appropriate staff. We estimate that 30 minutes 
would be needed for this one-time familiarization process. Using 
projected business formation estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau for 
2020 and the number of new apprenticeship programs established in 2020 
provided by the Department of Labor, we estimate that there are 324,446 
entities that would incur this start-up burden.\6\ Assuming a 30-minute 
burden per entity, the total annual hour burden is 162,223 hours (.5 
hour x 324,446 new entities = 162,223 hours).
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    \1\ Source of original data: 2017 Economic Census. (https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/data/datasets/2017/econ/susb/2017-susb.html). Local Downloadable CSV data. Select U.S. & states, 6 
digit NAICS. The original number of employers was adjusted to only 
include those with 15 or more employees.
    \2\ Source of original data: 2017 Census of Governments: 
Employment. Individual Government Data File (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/econ/apes/annual-apes.html), Local Downloadable 
Data zip file ``Individual Unit Files''. The original number of 
government entities was adjusted to only include those with 15 or 
more employees.
    \3\ Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2017. Postsecondary Institutions 
and Cost of Attendance in 2017-18; Degrees and Other Awards 
Conferred: 2016-17; and 12-Month Enrollment: 2016-17: First Look 
(Provisional Data), See Table 1, ``Number and percentage 
distribution of Title IV institutions, by control of institution, 
level of institution, and region: United States and other U.S. 
jurisdictions, academic year 2017-2018'' (https://nces.ed.gov/pubSearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018060REV).
    \4\ Source: U.S. Department of Labor. Registered Apprenticeship 
National Results Fiscal Year 2020. Number of active apprenticeship 
programs in 2020 (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship/about/statistics/2020).
    \5\ EEO-3 Reports filed by referral unions in 2018 with EEOC.
    \6\ Sources: Business Formation Statistics from the U.S. Census 
Bureau (https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/index.html). Total projected 
business formation statistics (series BF_PBF4Q) for 2020, across all 
industries, for the US, not seasonally adjusted; Department of 
Labor, New Apprenticeship programs for 2020 (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship/about/statistics/2020).

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    For the Commission.

    Dated: August 13, 2021.
Charlotte A. Burrows,
Chair.
[FR Doc. 2021-17931 Filed 8-20-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6570-01-P