Student Workers Not a Labor Department Focus in College Audits

Student workers, such as research and teaching assistants, won’t be a focus in Labor Department audits of universities’ employment practices, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ director said.

The student workers will still be able to submit complaints to the OFCCP if they think they’re being discriminated against in their university jobs, said multiple management attorneys with knowledge of the situation. However, universities won’t have to include student workers in affirmative action plans they submit to the agency, the attorneys said.

“OFCCP is charged with enforcing equal employment opportunity,” Fortney & Scott lawyer Mickey Silberman told Bloomberg Law. “If ...