President Trump revoked EO 13495 on Oct. 31, 2019, without formal rulemaking, and thereby set up a situation where new and existing solicitations, and current contracts containing the Nondisplacement Executive Order clause, will likely be subject to some confusion until the regulatory situation is resolved. But the bottom line is the service employee first right of refusal requirement has been revoked and there will be no more DOL enforcement actions.
Read MoreThe wage and hour section of the beta.sam.gov website continues to be debeviled with small problems and offers diminished resources to the public.
Read MoreDOJ has issued guidance about how trade secrets and commercial or financial information should be treated under new Supreme Court precedent interpreting the Freedom of Information Act. This guidance hopefully will achieve the Court’s “fair reading” of the term “confidential” when it comes to determining whether information should be exempt from FOIA disclosures.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act (“SCA”) presents both opportunities and peril each time a contractor submits a proposal to work on a covered contract. This is a primer on some of those pitfalls and opportunities.
Read MoreUnder the Service Contract Act (“SCA”), employers with self-insured unfunded health and weflare (“H&W”) plans are better off forming a trust and paying acturial premiums into the trust monthly so they can get proper credit for the fringe benefits furnished.
Read MoreMost notably, the final FLSA rule dispenses with the proposed rule’s significant increase in the salary requirement for the Highly Compensated Employee (“HCE”) test, and instead substitues a modest increase from $100,000 to a new salary basis of $107,432, effective January 2020.
Read MoreWhile the Service Contract Act (“SCA”) price adjustment clause requires contractors to submit their price adjustment prposals within 30 days of the contract modification adding a new wage determination, the Board says that requirement is not jurisdictional and doesn’t bar the claim. However, a failure of proof of actual costs will bar the recovery.
Read MoreOrdinarily, a service contractor has the duty to compare the employee positions that will be providing service under a contract with an applicable SCA wage determination so as to ascertain how much the employees should be paid and what benefits they receive. In a recent case, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals held that that is not always the case.
Read MoreComp time is ordinarily only used for public sector workers or exempt employees. But sometime workers are mislassified as exempt and erroneously receive comp time. In those circumstances, the employer should get a credit for the comp time actually paid towards any premium overtime due.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act has complex rules for wages and benefits. Here is a Q&A format with a few answers to questions posed by a small business employer.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act (“SCA”) covers all “service employees” working on or in connection with a government service contract. But that begs the issue of when a worker is directly working on a contract versus indirectly facilitating the performance of the work. As to where the coverage line is drawn, that depends on the contract terms and the employee’s job duties.
Read MoreResponding to Department of Labor investigations is not a simple exercise. While you are required to cooperate, provide documents and access to employees, you are not obligated to accept an investigator’s findings and you can question them. But, before you push back, be thoughtful. And,don’t forget to check the math.
Read MoreGiven the impending run out of grandfather contracts award and CBAs, the time is near that the sick leave Executive Order will apply to most service and construction contracts.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Labor issued All Agency Memorandum (“AAM”) no. 230 posting new health and welfare (“H&W”) fringe benefit rates for Service Contract Act (“SCA”) covered contracts effective July 5, 2019. The new H&W rates are $4.54 an hour, except if there is a sick leave Executive Order clause in the contract, whereupon the H&W rates are set at $4.22 an hour.
Read MoreThe Court of Federal Claims decsion in Just In Time Staffing maintains the long-established practice of limiting the FAR price adjustment clause to its plain language – covering the increased costs of wages and fringe benefits of the contractor’s employees and certain enumerated payroll taxes — and not to the cost to negotiate a CBA.
Read MoreTeaming arrangements provide great opportunities to corral the expertise and experience of two or more organizations to pursue federal contracts. A recent case illustrates how technicalities can hinder an otherwise qualified team.
Read MoreUpward adjustments in rates via SCA substantial variance proceedings impose a high burden of proof on the unionized employees seeking to set-aside the collectively bargained wages and benefits and impose the higher prevailing rates.
Read MoreThe “Raise the Wage Act” aims to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15.00 an hour by 2025. The FLSA minimum wage has not increased since July 24, 2009.
Read MoreIn Parker Drilling Management Services, LTD. v. Newton, the U.S. Supreme Court recently slapped down the 9th Circuit and ruled that the California state wage laws do not apply to workers on offshore oil rigs. This meant the employer had no requirement to comply with the California standby time rules, sleep time rules, or state minimum wage.
Read MoreLast fall, the Supreme Court held in Encino Motorcars LLC v. Navarro that statutes should not be construed so as to achieve perceived legislative goals where there is no “textual reason” why they should be given anything other than a “fair reading.” My colleagues and I wondered whether the “fair reading” concept might show up again. Well, it did. Enter Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.
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