The $15 Minimum Wage Executive Order (“MW EO”) only applies on or after January 30, 2022, and then only to new contracts. It doesn’t apply to the time period worked in the prior contract under the old MW EO. For that period in 2022, all that is legally due is the $11.25 MW or any higher prevailing wage. While DOL is specifying the new $15 MW was intended to apply to hours spent performing on that new contract in 2022, that just means the new contract hours. Service and construction contractors should wait patiently for the new option year, or when the new MW EO clause is added to the contract ,and get a price adjustment for any extra costs.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor published the annual increase in Civil Money Penalties due under the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act.
Read MoreIncreasing a minimum wage rate sounds simple enough. However, in our world of federal contracting, simple ideas often get kinda complicated. Here are some of the tasks you need to do as the new Contractor Minimum Wage Executive Order gets rolled out.
Read MoreGovernment contractors tend to have a “book” of existing multi-year fixed priced contracts. This means many government contractors are locked into fixed price contracts for up to the next five or so years. Those contracts were largely bid on in a low inflation world, with modest annual price escalations built-in. It is quickly becoming apparent we live in a new paradigm of higher inflation. Thus, those fixed price contractors face the prospect of either reduced profits or even losses, as inflation takes off,
Read MoreDepartment of Labor Wage and Hour Opinion Letters follow the ebb and flow of conservative and liberal executive administrations. When President Biden was inaugurated, we began a period where new Opinion Letters are a scarcity. This follows the practice of previous liberal administrations.
Read MoreThere’s a new rule in town that kicks the definition of “commercial item” out of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (“FAR”) and replaces it with separate definitions for “commercial product” and “commercial service.” While this is not a substantive change, it should make life easier.
Read MoreThe judgments made as to how much price escalation to load into proposals for new service work for anticipated option year increases in exempt personnel wages and fringe benefits is made more complicated and important in an era of heightened inflation expectations.
Read MoreOn November 18, 2021, President Joe Biden resurrected the Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contract Executive Order after President Trump revoked the Obama administration’s prior Executive Order on the same subject.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act price adjustment clause prohibits an adjustment for changes to the contract in the base year of performance. However, in some situations, the contractor is entitled to an adjustment through the Changes clause of their contract.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor has now issued its final rule implementing a raise in the minimum wage for workers who perform on or in connection with federal contracts. Here are some thoughts about the new regs and how the new $15 per hour rate may require contractors to devote renewed attention to whether their employees are receiving the required minimum.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently sent around an email soliciting “feedback” from interested parties about the Davis-Bacon Act (“DBA”). The inquiry references a Spring 2021 “Davis-Bacon Initiative (DBI21).” This is a rare opportunity to ask DOL to fix some of the ambiguities or inanities in the law and regulations.
Read MoreStobil appealed a Civilian Board of Contract Appeals decision to the Federal Circuit but could not show it was entitled to all of their wage rate increases were due to the new wage determination.
Read MoreIs a legally correct result always the right outcome? A recent bid protest held that an offeror could be downgraded for lack of experience even though the RFP stated (as it should) that lack of past performance information couldn’t be held against it.
Read MoreWhen Service Contract Act (“SCA”) covered nonexempt employees work at home or an alternate work site, does the employer have to get a new wage determination (“WD”) to cover the new locale? And if that new WD has higher wages must the contractor pay the higher rate? And how is DOL enforcing the SCA for remote workers in this pandemic era? The answers are maybe and very gingerly.
Read MoreThe ASBCA holds that FAR 22.404-12(c) does not require that notice be given to offers that they have the opportunity to escalate labor rates into their bid pricing even when the offers will not receive a price adjustment after a new Wage Determination is incorporated into the contract.
Read MoreMany federal contractors are being asked to accept contract modifications to implement President Biden’s vaccine mandate. So, what will compliance look like? For now, things are a bit vague; however, we hope the roll-out of this mandate will be reasonable. Contractors should be allowed some flexibility if they’re making good-faith efforts to cajole their workforces into being fully vaccinated.
Read MoreOfferors are entitled to a SCA price adjustment for increased costs incurred for vacation pay benefits during a contract renewal option period. Savvy offerors will exclude those vacation benefit costs for their bid costs in order to get a compeittive advantage. But this doesn’t work for existing employees or those hired from the predecessor contractor, who are entitled to a grant of vacation benefits in the base term of the contract.
Read MoreAn Eastern District of New York Court holds that the Department of Labor is not bound by arbitration agreements to which the Department of Labor is not a party.
Read MoreThe Tenth Circuit holds that the Union in this case cannot compel the Contractor to arbitrate Davis-Bacon job classifications. However, the court did not hold that Davis-Bacon job classifications are not arbitrable. This article was written by our very own Kirby Rousseau for The Government Contractor publication.
Read MoreThe evolving COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal employees and contractor employees are a work in progress. New Executive Orders that will require near universal vaccination of employees are replacing the vaccine-or-test mandate issued mere weeks ago. Read on for more about the new requirements and the confusion that may ensue in the meantime.
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