On August 1, 2019, the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) opened its electronic portal for the 2019 filing season of the VETS-4212 report. Federal contractors and subcontractors are required to file their 2019 VETS-4212 reports with VETS by September 30, 2019.  Instructions on how to file the VETS-4212 report can be found here.

It is very important to file the VETS-4212 report if an organization meets the threshold for filing the VETS-4212 report. OFCCP has an on-going focus regarding protected veterans and the VETS-4212 report is routinely asked for at the start of an affirmative action compliance review.

Things to Consider

Here are some things to consider when filing the VETS-4212 report:

• Federal contractors and subcontractors with a single contract of $150,000 or more must file the VETS-4212 report.  Federal contractors and subcontractors with contracts of less than $150,000 are not required to file the VETS-4212 report even if these contracts have an aggregated amount of $150,000 or more.
• Federal contractors or subcontractors with multiple locations MUST file separate VETS-4212 reports for each facility with 50 or more employees. Organizations with locations having less than 50 employees may file information for these locations separately or in consolidated reports that cover multiple locations within the same state. For example, if an organization has multiple facilities with less than 50 employees in both Wisconsin and Illinois, the organization may file one VETS-4212 report covering facilities in Wisconsin, and one VETS-4212 report covering facilities in Illinois.
• The VETS-4212 report does not require that employers report on new hires within each EEO-1 category.  While reporting on employees within each EEO-1 category is mandatory, reporting on new hires within each EEO-1 category is optional.  However, organizations required to file the VETS-4212 report MUST report on the TOTAL number of protected veterans hired and the total number of all hires.
• Federal contractors and subcontractors must show the maximum number and minimum number of employees for the location covered by each VETS-4212 report.
• Unlike the EEO-1 report, organizations required to file the VETS-4212 report do NOT need to file a consolidated report for the entire organization.

File Early!

As the end of the filing cycle nears, VETS typically experiences a high volume of phone calls from organizations that have questions about completing the report.  Due to the large number of phone calls at VETS during this time, it may be difficult to connect with someone at VETS who can answer questions in a timely way.  To address this issue, VETS has created a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on their website in hopes providing answers to questions and addressing any issues or concerns that organizations may experience as they are filing their reports.