EEO DEIA- SOW.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK FOR

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY (EEO)/ DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION

AND ACCESSIBILITY (DEIA) SUPPORT

1.0 BACKGROUND

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is an independent agency of the Federal Government responsible for preventing or minimizing work stoppages by assisting labor and management to settle their disputes through mediation, promoting the development of sound and stable labor-management relationships, and advocating collective bargaining, mediation, and voluntary arbitration as the preferred process for settling issues between employers and representatives of employees. In addition, the FMCS mission includes developing the art, science, and practice of conflict resolution, and fostering the establishment and maintenance of constructive joint processes to improve labor-management relationships, employment security and organizational effectiveness.

2.0 PURPOSE

The purpose of this requirement is to obtain Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)/Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) support for the FMCS EEO Office. Areas of support will include, but are not limited to, managing and executing initiatives of the FMCS DEIA Strategic Plan and the FMCS Equity Strategic Plan; providing guidance, assistance, and training, as needed, to FMCS employees and supervisors; and executive level administrative support to the EEO Director.

It is expressly agreed and understood that this is a non-personal services contract as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation 37.101, under which the services performed by the contractor are rendered in its capacity as an independent contractor. The Government will evaluate the quality of the service provided but retains no control over the contractor’s employees or agents. The contractor is solely liable for, and expressly agrees to indemnify the Government with respect to any liability producing acts or omissions by it or by its employees or agents.

3.0 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this requirement is to obtain one (1) EEO/DEIA specialist to provide EEO/DEIA support to the FMCS EEO Office.

4.0 PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS

The proposed contractor shall have:

4.1 A working knowledge and experience in interpreting applicable EEO laws, regulations, Executive Orders, Presidential Directives, court decisions, issues related to the Federal reasonable accommodation, disability and Equal

Employment Programs, executive branch guidelines, and/or administrative/criminal legal guidelines and procedures.

4.2 Experience tracking and maintaining files in accordance with EEO regulatory requirements.

4.3 Experience processing and resolving EEO informal and formal cases and/or experience in alternative dispute resolution.

4.4 Experience developing or supporting EEO, DEIA and/or special emphasis programs.

4.5 Experience applying qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze and measure agency EEO statistical reports including Management Directive 715 and the Barrier Analysis Process, Form 462, and the No Fear Act Report (annual and quarterly).

4.6 Experience drafting, EEO directives, policies, and procedures and EEO ADR policies and procedures.

4.7 Experience developing trainings related to EEO and DEIA to prevent unlawful discrimination and reduce complaints in the federal sector.

4.8 Excellent oral and written communication skills for client contact and communication

4.9 Ability to organize and handle multiple project assignments and experience in program planning and execution.

4.10 Strong attention to detail through consistent and accurate execution of tasks, adherence to guidelines and procedures, and proactive identification and resolution of errors or discrepancies in work products.

5.0 TASKS

The proposed contractor must perform the following tasks:

5.1 Manage, track, monitor and execute the initiatives of the FMCS DEIA Strategic Plan and the FMCS Equity Strategic Plan.

5.2 Track and monitor EEO complaints throughout the full complaint lifecycle.

5.3 Provide guidance and assistance to ensure timeliness and compliance with EEO regulatory requirements and the processing of all phases of individual or class complaints in the formal and informal process.

5.4 The contractor shall provide EEO/DEIA guidance, assistance, and training, as needed, to FMCS employees, and supervisors.

5.5 The contractor shall assist in developing or updating FMCS’ EEO and DEIA directives and policies and procedures.

5.6 The contractor shall assist with the preparation of all EEO-required reports including but not limited to annual Management Directive 715, annual and quarterly No Fear Reports, Form 462 and annual updates to the FMCS DEIA and Equity Strategic Plans.

5.7 Provide executive level administrative support to the EEO Director.

5.8 Maintain and update, as appropriate, the FMCS internal EEO and DEIA

SharePoint sites.

5.9 Address internal inquiries regarding civil rights and equal opportunity laws and regulations, as appropriate, based on the specialist’s expertise; refers sensitive issues and concerns to EEO Director.

6.0 DELIVERABLES

Weekly status reports on progress of assigned tasks and activities performed under the task order are due to the EEO Director showing the status of all active tasks, recent accomplishments, priorities for the next week, outstanding items, items completed and identification of any barriers to productivity. Additional deliverables may be requested in writing to the contractor by the EEO Director, as appropriate.

7.0 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The Period of Performance (PoP) shall be twenty-four (24) months, to include a 6-month base period and three (3) option periods that are 6-months each.

8.0 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE AND HOURS OF OPERATION

8.1 The contractor shall provide between thirty (30) to forty (40) hours per week of remote support to the EEO Director, who is based out of the FMCS Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

8.2 The contractor may set his or her own hours between the times 0500 to 1900

EDT, so long as it does not exceed 8 hours per day, as it will be necessary to communicate with FMCS employees in various time zones.

8.3 The Contractor is not required to provide service on the following U.S. Federal holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas day.

8.4 When the Government grants administrative leave to Government employees as a result of inclement weather, potentially hazardous conditions, or other special circumstances, contractor personnel may work at a preapproved alternate location or be dismissed.

8.5 Work performed on holidays and other non-work time is not billable unless it is specifically requested by the COR or the Contracting Officer and approved in advance.

9.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY/EQUIPMENT/FACILITIES

FMCS will provide the contractor personnel with a computer, cell phone, software, and network access necessary to perform the work requirements.

All materials provided by the Government during the course of this task order will remain the property of the Government and will be returned on completion of the task order. The contractor or their designated representative shall sign the required Government tracking document for the necessary supplied equipment.

10.0 ACCESS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS

All contractors and contractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal laws, regulations, standards and FMCS policies as FMCS, and FMCS personnel, regarding information and information systems security. Contractors must follow policies and procedures outlined in FMCS IT Security Program to ensure appropriate security controls are in place.

A contractor shall request logical (technical) and/or physical access to FMCS information and FMCS information systems for employees, subcontractors, and affiliates only to the extent necessary: (1) to perform the services specified in the task order, (2) to perform necessary maintenance functions for electronic storage or transmission media necessary for performance of the task order, and (3) individuals must satisfy the same conditions, requirements and restrictions comparable to FMCS employees in order to access the same type of FMCS information.

11.0 FMCS INFORMATION CUSTODIAL REQUIREMENTS

Information made available to the contractor by FMCS for the performance or administration of this contract or information developed by the contractor in performance or administration of the contract shall be used only for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the prior written agreement of the Contracting Officer.

FMCS information shall not be co-mingled with any other data on the contractor’s/ subcontractor’s information systems/media storage systems in order to ensure FMCS requirements related to data protection and media sanitization can be met. FMCS also reserves the right to conduct IT resource inspections to ensure data separation and on-site inspection of information destruction/media sanitization or disposal procedures to ensure they are in compliance with FMCS policy requirements.

Prior to termination or completion of this contract, the contractor shall not destroy information received from FMCS or gathered or created by the contractor in the course of performing this contract without prior written approval by the FMCS Contracting Officer. Any data destruction done on behalf of FMCS by a contractor must be done in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements.

The contractor shall receive, gather, store, back-up, maintain, use, disclose and dispose of FMCS information only in compliance with the terms of the contract and applicable Federal and FMCS information confidentiality and security laws, regulations, and policies. Applicable Federal information security regulations include all Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and Special Publications (SP) issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

If Federal or FMCS information confidentiality and security laws, regulations and policies become applicable to the FMCS information or information systems after execution of this contract, the parties agree to negotiate in good faith to implement the information confidentiality and security laws, regulations, and policies, including FIPS or SP, in the contract.

The contractor shall not make copies of FMCS information except as necessary to perform the terms of the agreement or to preserve electronic information stored on contractor electronic storage media for restoration in case any electronic equipment or data used by the contractor needs to be restored to an operating state.

If FMCS determines that the contractor has violated any of the information confidentiality, privacy, and security provisions of the contract, it shall be sufficient grounds for FMCS to terminate the contract for default or terminate for cause under Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 12.

12.0 SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

The contractor must have a completed background investigation at the Tier 2 moderate risk level (formerly MBI), or higher, with a favorable adjudication. FMCS will verify this information prior to start of the contract.

13.0 NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT

Due to the sensitive nature of the data and information being worked with on a daily basis, the contractor shall provide a signed and completed NDA for each contractor personnel, to include the contractor’s subcontractors, having access to FMCS information to ensure information that is considered sensitive or proprietary is not compromised.

14.0 PERSONNEL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The term "personal conflict of interest" means that a contractor employee assigned to the task order has interests which (i) may diminish his/her capacity to give impartial, technically sound, objective assistance and advice in performing this task order, (ii) may otherwise result in a biased work product under this task order, or (iii) may result in an unfair competitive advantage.

A contractor employee shall not participate (i.e., recommend, influence, or decide) in any particular matters that:

• will have a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of that employee, his/her spouse or minor child, or organization in which he/she serves as officer, director, trustee, general partner, or employee,

• will have a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of or any person or organization with whom he/she is negotiating or has an arrangement concerning prospective employment, or

• may otherwise cause a reasonable person to question his/her impartiality.