The Office of Compliance (OOC) today released its FY2017 State of the Congressional Workplace Annual Report, covering workplace rights, safety and health, and accessibility under the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA).

A special section of the report extends beyond the fiscal year to highlight the OOC’s role in addressing and preventing sexual harassment in the legislative branch. For example, more than 7,000 legislative branch employees received sexual harassment prevention training from the OOC over a six-week period at the end of 2017. More than 1,000 employees received in-person training with an OOC instructor in that time frame.

“Capitol Hill, like so much of the rest of the country, has been spurred to redouble its efforts to protect its workplaces from sexual harassment,” says Barbara Childs Wallace, the Chair of the OOC’s Board of Directors. “After years of recommending mandatory training, making sure employees know their workplace rights, and upgrading its dispute resolution program, the OOC is gratified to see changes taking place to help make the legislative branch a model workplace.”

The OOC recommends extra training for supervisors on implementing and communicating policies and procedures and encourages all employees to review its newly developed resources, including leadership guides and video training.

In the legislative branch, the OOC does the job of multiple executive branch agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of Justice with regard to issues of public accessibility.

The OOC continues to process cases with no backlog, and with an affirmation rate of 100 percent from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Administrative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program resolves most claims filed with the OOC.

In its role enforcing the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct), during FY2017, OOC’s safety and health specialists inspected all 435 offices of House Members, in addition to spaces such as the U.S. Botanic Garden and Library of Congress.