Purpose and coverage. The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act1 requires employers with federal contracts or subcontracts of $10,000 or more to take affirmative action to hire and promote certain veterans and disabled veterans. If any special disabled veteran or veteran of the Vietnam era believes any contractor of the United States has failed to comply with the Act, he/she may file a complaint with the Department of Labor. Special disabled veterans include those persons who have a military disability of at least thirty-percent or who have been released from active duty under a service-connected disability, or persons who are on active duty for at least 180 days during the Vietnam War and were not dishonorably discharged.
Every contractor subject to the Act must have an affirmative action clause in each of its covered government contracts or subcontracts. The affirmative action clause is described in regulations enforced by the OFCCP.2
Affirmative action program. If a covered employer has fifty or more workers and contracts or subcontracts of $50,000 or more, the employer must develop an affirmative action plan at each establishment which sets forth the contractor's policies, practices and procedures promoting the affirmative action obligations of the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act, and the affirmative action program must be prepared within 120 days of the commencement of a government contract.3
SOURCES
- 38 U.S.C. § 4211, et seq.
- 41 CFR § 60-250.4.
- 38 U.S.C. § 60-250.5.