Contractors who have disputes with the Government must first submit a claim to their Contracting Officer for a final decision. If they don’t like the outcome, they can appeal the Contracting Officer’s Final Decision. Two recent decisions address what happens when you have a new idea after the fact.
Read MoreA U.S. District Court judge holds that a contractor had not received final agency action to allow an Administrative Procedure Act suit. Thus a challenge to DOL’s determination that the Service Contract Act applies to cooperative agreements is not ripe for appeal.
Read MoreFalsifying payroll records, paying bonuses instead of premium overtime pay, and being a general scofflaw gets you double damages and civil money penalties. No Virginia, crime does not pay.
Read MoreFrom time to time, I see a government contracts case that sends chills down my spine. A recent decision painfully reminds me of how the law governing our unique parcel in the vast lands of the legal world is rife with hard-to-see pools of quicksand that can trap even the most sophisticated contractors.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor is set to publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing the largest overhaul to Davis-Bacon Act regulations in 40 years.
Read MoreBimbo Bakeries USA Inc. (“Bimbo”) agreed to pay monies for allegedly refusing to hire women as bakers and related occupations on their government baking contracts in violation of Executive Order 11246.
Read MoreUnder the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers owe a minimum wage to their employees for all hours worked. This blog examines how that minimum wage obligation can be satisfied.
Read MorePresident Biden issued an Executive Order on February 4, 2022 that will require contractors to enter into project labor agreements for large scale federal construction projects. Although PLAs have been “encouraged” for some time, this order will transform this preference into an absolute requirement.
Read MoreDOL wants to annualize fringe benefit contributions, especially pension monies, to get contractors to pay Davis-Bacon Act fringe benefits even for non-Davis-Bacon Act work. This is variously called the annualization rule or the effective annual rate calculation. But some courts have refused to enforce the DOL annualization requirment.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor publishes a webpage hoping to educate the public about which types of projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be covered by the Davis-Bacon Act.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor announced yesterday the Wage and Hour Division plans to hire 100 investigators this year. For sure, they’ll be earnest and energized. That’s why a solid grounding in the wage and hour laws affecting the government contractor community will be a powerful tool to ensure you get a fair shake.
Read MoreThe $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.
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