“NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of President George H.W. Bush, and as an expression of public sorrow, … do further appoint December 5, 2018, as a National Day of Mourning throughout the United States. I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President George H.W. Bush.”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-announcing-death-george-h-w-bush/

Let’s say you have service employees whose work site is a government facility. And let’s say the facility closes for a day of mourning, like is the case today for President George H.W. Bush’s funeral. What do you do with your workers who can’t report to the work site that day?

You could just pay them for the day and have them code it to administrative leave. Or if they are nonexempt workers, you could just tell them not to come to work, and either not pay them or instead permit them in their discretion to utilize their leave. But if they are exempt employees, you probably have to pay them and avoid any issue of not compensating them on a salary basis under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) Part 541 exemptions, since no daily furloughs are allowed. You could ask the exempt employees to work from home, of course.

The next issue is could a contractor be reimbursed for this administrative leave time cost, if you give them the extra day off on paid administrative leave? If you are a cost reimbursement contractor, my answer is read your contract and see if this cost is made unallowable. The contract may have a clause that dictates the circumstances where you can get paid. If you are a fixed price contractor, of course, the same answer applies. The contract may still incorporate provisions that deal with these kinds of shutdowns or government closures. If the contract has no provision, however, since it is fixed price, then you probably cannot recover these leave costs.

What does the Service Contract Act (SCA”) have to say on this subject? The US Department of Labor Field Operations Handbook (“FOH”) section 14j05(c) notes as follows:

(c) If the applicable WD does not include a paid holiday provision for any day declared by the U.S. President to be a holiday, or for any work day where the Federal facility is closed such as due to inclement weather, the contractor is not required to pay covered service employees who take that day off. Any pay provided would be a matter of discretion for the contractor, and contract payments for such time not worked would be a procurement matter within the purview of the contracting agency.

It almost goes without saying, but please review your wage determination(s) carefully and make sure they don’t cover such events, like Presidential funeral closures, as paid holidays.