I had the opportunity to meet Marcus Stergio, the OFCCP’s new Ombudsman, at the VEVRAA Town Hall in Washington, D.C. this month. Recall that in 2018, OFCCP issued Directive 2018-09 creating an Ombud Service that will be based in the National Office to help facilitate the resolution of concerns raised by OFCCP external stakeholders. The goal is to have the Ombud serve as an impartial liaison between OFCCP and its external stakeholders and provide an independent mechanism through which external stakeholders, after having exhausted district and regional OFCCP channels, can bring forward their concerns with the agency.
He was looking forward to meeting members of the contractor community and welcomed invitations to local ILG meetings. Prior to his appointment, Stergio served as Mediator and Manager of Commercial & Corporate Programs at MWI, a dispute resolution firm based in Boston.
Stergio’s new role involves listening to external stakeholder concerns about OFCCP matters and suggestions for improvements, promoting and facilitating the resolution of OFCCP matters at the district and region office level, working with OFCCP district and regional offices as a liaison to resolve certain issues, referring stakeholders to the OFCCP Help Desk for routine compliance and technical assistance inquiries, as well as reviewing matters referred directly by the national office.
