Withholding of money is an enforcement tool given to DOL. It is intended to serve the important remedial purposes of the prevailing wage laws. But it is a blunt instrument and can be used abusively and in violation of due process rights. DOL needs to curb those abuses. Withholding is becoming all too often routine and a means to secure the outcome DOL wants regardless of the merits.

The CBCA  is now on record again that, same as the situation under the SCA, when a new EO sick leave benefit requirement is added to an existing contract, that constitutes a change to the contract and entitles the contractor to a full equitable adjustment in the contract price. The presence of an EPA clause does not alter that “straightforward and uncontroversial conclusion.”