[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 176 (Wednesday, September 11, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73649-73651]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20610]
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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.
[[Page 73650]]
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
October 11, 2024.
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 Review--Open for
Public Comments'' or by using the search function.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Oram, Assistant Legal
Counsel, at (202) 921-3240 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
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.\1\
The EEOC has promulgated recordkeeping regulations under these
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 the recordkeeping requirements in 29 CFR part 1602.
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\1\ While the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) also
authorizes the EEOC to issue recordkeeping regulations, this notice
announces the EEOC's intent to seek an extension of the existing
recordkeeping requirements under Title VII, the ADA, and GINA.
Recordkeeping requirements concerning the PWFA will be addressed
separately.
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A notice that the EEOC would be submitting this request was
published in the Federal Register on July 3, 2024, allowing for a 60-
day public comment period. One comment was received from the public
during the comment period; however, the comment did not address the
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: 887,869.
Number of Reports Submitted: 0.
Estimated Burden Hours: 178,485.
Burden Hour Cost: $5,806,101.
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 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 887,869 entities, which combines
estimates from private employment,\2\ the public sector,\3\ colleges
and universities,\4\ apprenticeship programs,\5\ and labor
organizations.\6\ 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
labor organizations) 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 records, but merely requires retention
of records 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.
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\2\ Source of original data: 2021 Economic Census (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/econ/susb/2021-susb-annual.html).
Local Downloadable CSV data. Select U.S. & states, 6-digit NAICS.
The original number of employers was adjusted to include only those
with 15 or more employees.
\3\ Source of original data: 2022 Census of Governments:
Employment. Individual Government Data File (https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2022/econ/apes/2022.html), Local Downloadable Data zip
file ``Individual Unit Files.'' The original number of government
entities was adjusted to include only those with 15 or more
employees.
\4\ Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2022, Institutional
Characteristics component (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 2022-23'' (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/search/viewtable?tableId=35945&returnUrl=%2Fsearch).
\5\ Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeship
National Results Fiscal Year 2021, Number of active apprenticeship
programs in 2021 (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship/about/statistics/2021).
\6\ The EEOC has undertaken measures to enhance the agency's
existing EEO-3 data frame (i.e., roster) of potentially eligible
filers that was most recently used during the 2022 EEO-3 data
collection. The number of labor organizations was estimated by
comparing the EEOC's 2022 EEO-3 frame to a list of active unions
from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor Management
Standards (OLMS) Online Public Disclosure Room (OPDR) database
(https://olmsapps.dol.gov/olpdr/).
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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 the Title VII, ADA, and GINA recordkeeping
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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 2023 and the number of new
apprenticeship programs established in 2021 provided by the Department
of Labor, we estimate that there are 356,969 entities that would incur
this start-up burden.\7\ Assuming a 30-minute burden per entity, the
total annual hour burden is 178,485 hours (.5 hour x 356,969 new
entities = 178,485 hours). The estimated associated burden hour cost to
respondents is $5,806,101, or around $16.27 per new entity.\8\
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\7\ 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 2023, across all
industries, for the US, not seasonally adjusted; U.S. Department of
Labor, New Apprenticeship programs for 2021 (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship/about/statistics/2021).
\8\ Burden hour cost estimates are based on the median hourly
wage rate of $32.53 for Human Resources Specialists obtained from
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2024 (see U.S. Department of
Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook,
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/).
For the Commission,
Charlotte A. Burrows,
Chair.
[FR Doc. 2024-20610 Filed 9-10-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6570-01-P