DOL Scraps Affirmative Action Rules for Apprenticeships
The Labor Department's final rule removes equal opportunity duties for Registered Apprenticeship sponsors, including demographic analysis, effective Jan. 5.
Sponsors of federally registered apprenticeships are about to lose a set of equal opportunity duties. The US Department of Labor has issued a final rule that removes what it calls affirmative action requirements, effective Jan. 5.
From a modernizing proposal to repeal
The department has kept deregulating apprenticeship programs since 2024. It first proposed a rule in December 2023 to "modernize" them. Then-Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said at the time: "Equity and job quality have marked the most successful Registered Apprenticeship programs for workers and employers alike."
The final rule goes the other way on those equity duties. The department now calls the requirements "onerous and legally questionable".
What the programs are
A Registered Apprenticeship is a job that pairs paid work with training. The federal fact sheet describes the programs as paid jobs vetted by industry, combining on-the-job training with classroom study. Participants get portable credentials.
The programs are meant to link employer needs with entry-level professionals. They span agriculture, construction, education, energy, financial services, health care, hospitality, manufacturing, technology and transportation.
What sponsors no longer have to do
Documents filed in the Federal Register on Thursday describe the change. The rule is set to be published on Friday.
The department says the aim is to simplify work for employers. Part 30 of the regulation, with its "complicated array" of nondiscrimination requirements, will be replaced with a more straightforward alternative.
Part 30 made sponsors appoint one person for all equal employment opportunity duties. It also obliged them to hold antiharassment training and display an equal opportunity pledge. Larger sponsors, with five or more apprentices, also had to study the race, sex and ethnicity makeup of their apprentices. The final rule removes all of these.
The final rule document says the department expects the change to lighten sponsors' administrative load considerably. It also expects that to encourage more employers to adopt Registered Apprenticeship programs, according to the final rule document.
HR Dive asked the department for comment and had no reply by publication.
Source: HR Dive