The relationship between gig economy businesses such as Uber and Lyft and the people who do their work has come under considerable scrutiny as state and local governments have struggled over whether their wage and hour laws should apply to gig economy workers. But what happens to gig businesses if they have federal contracts? Will their workers be entitled to prevailing wages and benefits? Well—perhaps yes.
Read MoreWhen it comes to proposal submission, late is late, for material RFP requirements, even if it is your subcontractor’s data which is untimely. It is a harsh but long-standing rule of law for offerors.
Read MoreJust some musings on practicing government contracts law and the stability of the federal contracting community.
Read MoreEmployers who encourage employee participation in a vaccination plan through a one-time bonus, may run some wage and hour risks. There is a limited group of payments that can be excluded from the regular rate of pay. A Covdi-19 vaccination bonus isn’t one of those specifically identified payments. Since “no good deed goes unpunished” and with respect to nondiscretionary bonuses, the employer may have to worry about increasing their overtime liability for Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) covered employees if the bonus is found to be included in th eregular rate of pay. .
Read MoreWe’ve all heard the old adage that a deal’s a deal. The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals recently demonstrated how this adage can cost a federal contractor a fair chunk of change when it comes to the cost of increasing wages owed to service contract employees—especially for work performed overseas. Bottom line - carefully determine what your contract requires for service employee wages and benefits. Then, make sure your proposal meets those requirements and ensure that you’re protected from the shock of increased costs.
Read MoreCivil Money Penalties were subject to their annual adjustment. This year it was about a 1.2% upward adjustment. This includes the FLSA penalties. But it didn’t affect the CWHSSA or PCA penalties since they are rounded to a whole number and the inflation factor was not significant enough to cause that to happen.
Read MoreWhen an employee performs work before traveling to the office, or after leaving the office, and has sufficient time to use for her own purposes, then the time spent traveling between home and the office is not compensable.
Read MoreFor many who are working remotely, it feels like decades since they’ve strolled down to the break room where they can view many notices required by various employment laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), the Service Contract Act (“SCA”), and the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (“EPPA”). A recent bulletin issued by the Department of Labor provides much needed guidance about how employers may use electronic posting to fulfill their posting obligations in the remote working world.
Read MoreThe future is unknowable. But here are some wage and hour predictions for 2021.
Read MoreDOL is scheduled to issue its final tip poling rules today. Meanwhile the DOL OIG recently found that the procedures DOL used back in 2017 to issue the proposed tip pooling rules were faulty. The OIG concludes that DOL did not follw a sound process in promulgating the proposed rules.
Read MoreThe canon of bid protest decisions is littered with many, many cases in which the Government rejected a proposal due to a technical glitch. A recent decision issued by the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) demonstrates, once again, that little things can consign a proposal to the waste bin.
Read MoreDOL is on record of claiming jurisdiction over research and development (“R&D”) contracts under the SCA unless some other specific exemption applies.
Read MoreIn October of this year, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) published a study titled Federal Contracting – Actions Needed to Improve Department of Labor’s Enforcement of Service Worker Wage Protections (Oct. 2020). The GAO report has offered up some interesting factual nuggets on SCA investigations along with six rather bland recommendations to improve enforcement.
Read MoreThe triangular relationship between the Government, prime contractors, and their subcontractors provides fertile ground for disputes to arise. How parties allocate the risk of losses caused by Government acts can cause a claim to disappear. The recent ASBCA decision in Appeal of JAAAT Technical Services, LLC, ASBCA No. 62373 (Oct. 26, 2020) reminds us how to prevent claims from disappearing in a contractual Bermuda Triangle.
Read MoreA recent Department of Labor (“DOL”) Wage and Hour Opinion Letter gives guidance on compensability of travel time. Employees must be compensated for time when suffered or permitted to work. Normally, this does not include commuting time. But sometimes, this duty to pay even applies to time spent commuting.
Read MoreIf you want to give an employee a holiday gift card, and exclude the value from the regular rate of pay, it would be prudent not to announce the gift in advance and perhaps even make the award of the gift card conditioned upon “unique or extraordinary efforts” or for “challenging or stressful situations”, or for a “worker-of-the-month” bonus.
Read MoreRegardless of the ultimate outcome of the electoral process, government contractors wonder whether there will be wholesale changes for them, particularly with respect to their employment policies. Well, as with most things, the unsatisfactory answer is yes and no. Here are some examples of what might be on the horizon.
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“…. insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war -- seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”
— Lincoln, Second Inaugural
Read MoreDeclaring Election Day a national holiday isn’t exactly a novel idea. While the 2020 Presidential election may be the most participated U.S. election in recent memory, more can always be done to remove the obstacles faced by each voter. Accordingly, we make a modest proposal that Election Day be made a mandatory paid holiday with guaranteed time off to vote. Let’s tip a glass of cider to a new Democracy Day holiday!
Read MoreThe Department of Labor recently issued an FLSA opinion letter that addressed whether highly educated part-time executive trainers are exempt learned professionals. The opinion provides a useful reminder that, while there are many nuances that complicate the assessment of FLSA exemptions, the analysis always requires the consideration of duties, method of payment, and the amount of pay. Hence, the answer to whether a particular employee might be exempt often may be yes—but no.
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