EEO-1 reports – the federally mandated annual forms designed to help the EEOC uncover discriminatory conduct – have a filing deadline of September 30th and many employers are still unsure of their obligations. In a recent BLR webinar, Richele K. Taylor lent her expertise on the matter to help participants understand the requirements; she gave a lot of helpful advice and took the time to answer many participant questions. Here are a couple questions you may be wondering about as well, broken down by category.

Must I File an EEO-1 Report?

During the webinar, many participants realized that they have special circumstances that put them right on the edge of the filing requirements, especially when it comes to how many employees you have (as this is one of the qualifying characteristics that determines whether you must file an EEO-1 report). Taylor gave some advice on when to file, and when it may not be necessary.

Q. We are a staffing agency – must we count internal temps when determining how many employees we have?

A. It depends; if you’re paying them and handling everything – as opposed to screening them and giving them to companies to hire – they would be considered your employee. But if you’re doing the background work and another company is hiring them, then it would go onto theirs.

Q. If I did not have the requisite 100 employees from July through September, but I did back in March, do I still need to complete the EEO-1 report?

A. No. If you don’t meet the requirement (typically 100 employees if you’re not a federal contractor) at the time of completing your employee survey, you do not have to fill it out.

Q. We are a small company with 85 regular employees but 20 interns for 2 months. Do I have to do an EEO-1 report since we have over 100 on file during part of the year?

A. In this scenario, it all depends on the specifics of the interns’ arrangements and whether they qualify as employees under the rules.

See our related article on FAQs regarding the potential for audits when filing errors or changes. Tomorrow's article will address reporting procedures.

For more information on filing procedures for EEO-1 reports, order the webinar recording of "HR’s EEO-1 Report Deadline: How to Re-Survey Employees and File In Time." To register for a future webinar, visit http://catalog.blr.com/audio.

Attorney Richele K. Taylor is Of Counsel with the law firm of Fisher & Phillips LLP. She has successfully represented employers in state and federal courts, and before administrative agencies on a variety of issues, such as Title VII, the FMLA, ADEA, breach of contract and wrongful termination claims.