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The Labor Department’s Wage & Hour Division (“WHD”) released final regulations implementing mandatory paid sick leave for employees working on federal service, construction, and concessions contracts.  The Labor Department incorporated some changes to the proposed regulations, which we previewed earlier this year, but the final rule still imposes significant obligations on federal contractors and subcontractors.

The costs are likely to come both from the paid sick leave itself (a maximum of seven days per year) and from the layers of complexity on top of contractors’ existing compliance obligations with respect to these types of contracts.  The regulations overlap with WHD’s responsibility for oversight of the Service Contract Labor Standards (commonly known as the Service Contract Act, or “SCA”), which is already a complicated compliance undertaking for employers.  In this post, we summarize the highlights of the final regulations and flag issues for contractors to consider before the regulations take effect in January 2017.
Continue Reading Paid Sick Leave Final Regulations Released

The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) recently released a study of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program’s (“OFCCP” or the “Agency”) oversight functions for fiscal years 2010 to 2015.  GAO’s report explains that “OFCCP has not found violations in the vast majority of its compliance evaluations,” noting that in the time period GAO studied, OFCCP found violations in 17% of evaluations.  GAO pointed out that OFCCP resolved 99 percent of these violations through agreements between the agency and contractor that outlined remedial measures. …
Continue Reading The GAO Is Not Down With OFCCP: Report Criticizes Agency’s “Weak” Compliance Evaluations and May Trigger Increased Contractor Oversight

Just in time for Labor Day, the Labor Department and FAR Council issued a final rule and accompanying “Guidance” to implement the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order.  The new regulations will take effect on October 25, 2016.  The regulations—which run to nearly 900 pages—contain a number of changes from the proposed regulations to demonstrate that the Department listened to stakeholders during the lengthy comment period.

Despite some concessions to industry comments, the final regulations still establish substantial compliance obligations.  In light of those burdens, the contracting community is well advised to invest time to understand these provisions.  In this post, we summarize key changes and examine the way ahead for contractors. …
Continue Reading “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” Final Rule and Guidance Released

Congress has weighed in on Executive Order 13673, known officially as the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Order” and unofficially as the “Blacklisting Order.”  While the Office of Management and Budget reviews the Labor Department’s draft of the final regulations and guidance, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have added language to the Fiscal…

On May 4, the Labor Department and Federal Acquisition Regulatory (“FAR”) Council submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) their final versions of regulations and guidance (respectively) implementing Executive Order 13673, entitled “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” (“FPSW Order”).  The FPSW Order, which requires contractors bidding on government contracts to disclose past violations of any one of at least 14 federal labor laws and their state law counterparts, has been met with harsh criticism from contractors and members of congress since its July 2014 issuance by President Obama.  (See our blog post here for more analysis of the proposed regulations implementing the Order.)  The most recent attack occurred just one week prior to the Labor Department and FAR Council submissions: the House Armed Services Committee adopted an amendment that would exempt the entire Department of Defense (“DOD”) from the FPSW Order. …
Continue Reading Battle over “Blacklisting” Order: Obama Administration Moves Forward with Fair Pay Order as House Members Attempt to Exempt DOD

Following up on President Obama’s Labor Day release of an executive order requiring government contractors to offer paid sick leave to employees, the Labor Department issued proposed implementing regulations and invited comments by April 12.  Contractors with service contracts should consider submitting comments, especially if they already offer paid sick leave and rely on that leave to meet their fringe benefit obligations under the Service Contract Act.

Under the SCA, contractors cannot take credit for offering benefits that they are legally required to provide.  By setting a minimum required level of paid sick leave, the proposed regulations convert seven days of those benefits into legal requirements, rendering them ineligible for bona fide fringe benefit status under the SCA.  Contractors would remain free to continue to account for the value of excess paid sick leave in discharging their SCA obligations, but not the base requirements.  As a result, contractors may have to recalculate their fringe benefit packages by extracting the value of current paid sick leave benefits, and then offer some other offsetting bona fide fringe benefit or an equivalent cash payment.  In sum, the paid sick leave executive order could have the effect of penalizing contractors who were already offering the very same benefit that the government now requires. …
Continue Reading Labor Department Invites Comments on Regulations Governing Paid Sick Leave

The FAR Council published a final rule to implement the President’s February 2014 Executive Order establishing a minimum wage for federal contractors.  The final rule adopts almost all of the provisions of last year’s interim rule, with a few changes that employers should note.

First, the final rule clarifies the timing of price adjustments. …