New Rule Streamlines Reporting Requirements for Veterans’ Employment, Hiring

Rule cuts required reporting elements by almost half

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has published a final rule that reduces reporting requirements for federal contractors and subcontractors who hire and employ veterans under provisions of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974.

Although this new rule is effective October 27, 2014, government contractors and subcontractors will not have to comply with the revised reporting requirements until the annual report filed in 2015.

“Over the next decade, this change will result in a significant reduction in paperwork burden for federal contractors and subcontractors,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training Keith Kelly. “In addition to easing the burden on contractors, the data collected by these reports will help the Labor Department develop more informative yearly trends in the employment of protected veterans.”

The final rule revises the VETS-100A Report and renames it the VETS-4212 Report. The VETS-100 Report will no longer be used.

The VETS-4212 Report requires contractors to report specified information on protected veterans in their workforce in the aggregate, rather than for each category of veterans protected under the statute, reducing the required reporting elements by almost half, from 82 to 42.

Under VEVRAA, the term “protected veterans” includes disabled veterans, veterans who served on active duty during a war or campaign for which a campaign badge was authorized, veterans who were awarded an Armed Forces Service Medal, and recently separated veterans.

Under this final rule, the DOL will receive valuable information on the number of protected veterans employed by federal contractors and the job categories in which they work. The department estimates that this rule will ultimately result in substantial savings for contractors: approximately $18.2 million over a 10-year period.

Find a Vet, Hire a Vet

If your company is a federal contractor, or even if not but you are seeking to expand your applicant pool to include skilled vets, check out American Jobs for America’s Heroes. This nonprofit campaign to help unemployed National Guard members, veterans and spouses find skilled jobs in the private sector offers employers free job postings on the National Guard Employment Network portal, placing your work opportunity in front of more than 60,000 unemployed trained and experienced National Guard members all over the U.S.