Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)

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OFCCP Deputy Assistant Secretary

CHARLES EVERETT JAMES, SR.
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs
Employment Standards Administration

Charles E. James, Sr. was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Employment Standards Administration and Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) on June 12, 2001 by Secretary of Labor, the Honorable Elaine E. Chao. In this position, he provides leadership to more than 500 OFCCP employees nationwide. OFCCP is responsible for enforcement of Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Vietnam Era Readjustment Assistance Act, and other laws requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to demonstrate their provision of equal employment opportunity regardless of race, gender, color, religion, national origin, disability, or protected veteran's status.

James brings to his position more than 30 years of industry and state government experience. Previously, he has served three years as a Member of the Virginia Parole Board and four years as Director of the Virginia Department of Personnel and Training. After more than a decade of assignments in operation and staff positions in the Bell System, he added nearly a decade of compliance responsibility to his telecommunications career as manager of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action for Bell Atlantic, now Verizon.

Since coming to OFCCP, he has overseen re-tooling to focus on systemic discrimination. Early on, development program to deal with the anticipated large numbers of retirements by baby boomers, increased the flexibility of information systems to support new approaches to case management so that staff could pursue illegal discrimination by focusing on larger cases and begin to the examine corporations with recurring issues. James augmented his staff's ability to handle validated test requirements and introduced additional statistical support for hiring and compensation analyses. He introduced functional affirmative action program establishments to the traditional and corporate headquarters establishments, made compliance assistance a major responsibility of national and field staff's, and effectively managed the issues associated with large numbers of retirements. His theme is "Efficiency and Effectiveness and Equal Enforcement."

He grew up in Roanoke, Virginia and graduated from King College in Bristol, Tennessee. He is married to Kay Coles James. The James' have three children and three grandchildren.