Sometimes the wage and hour regulations cannot be taken literally. Instead, you need to figure out the regulatory intent. For example, the SCA and DBA regulations bar the employer from claiming a credit for paying social security, worker’s comp and unemployment premiums. These tax like payments are not fringe benefits. But other federal and state mandated benefit plans like Obamacare, Romneycare in Massachusetts, holidays, and leave are fringe benefits and can be credited towards compliance.
Read MoreA recent Maryland case demonstrates how state law can supplant federal law with respect to wage and hour obligations. Federal contractors must be vigilant to avoid getting caught in this sometimes quite tangled web.
Read MoreDOL issues a proposed rule regarding the Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Executive Order.
Read MoreRecently, DOL has published a record of employers who have been caught violating the Wage and Hour or Occupational Safety and Health Administration laws. There is now a searchable data base that allows the public to search for violators by company name.
Read MoreIf a government contractor has a bone to pick, figuring out who to complain to can feel a lot like a customer service phone tree. If you press three instead of one, you can find yourself being transferred to another department after hours of being on hold. Or you can get completely different answers depending on who you speak to.
Read MoreDOL issues proposed revisions to WD-10, a wage survey collection tool submitted by construction contractors. Get prepare to classify your own projects.
Read MoreHere are some musing for government contractors on inflation and the stock market. You are now riding the inflation tiger, and you may yet be eaten alive.
Read MoreThe Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting recently issued a memo to guide contracting officers in response to the impacts of inflation on federal contracts. Read on to find out how there’s some hope for future contracts, but little relief for contractors who hold existing fixed-price contracts.
Read MoreAdministrative Review Board interprets DOL’s de minimis standard for truck drivers working on a DBA covered worksite.
Read MoreCareful drafting of CBAs, particularly on service contracts, should include some attention to language expressly making any state mandated fringe benefits into a CBA contractual requirement. At least that would be prudent for a contractor looking to get a price adjustment for state mandated benefits.
Read MoreThe refusal of the Government to pay for undisputed costs unless the contractor signs a release of all costs (disputed or not) seems heavy handed. A recent case holds that a government contractor cannot claim that the release was obtained through economic duress when litigation is an alternative.
Read MoreThe Department of Justice makes an inflationary adjustment to Civil Money Penalties for the second time in six months.
Read MoreLawyers and law firms too get picked on by DOL for FLSA violations — usually misclassification, working time and overtime problems. Just because you have a law degree doesn’t mean you understand the law.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court this week agreed to hear an appeal to resolve differing interpretations of the Department of Labor’s “salary basis” regulations. Both sides are adamant that the “plain text” of one provision or the “plain terms” of another compel their favored result—that a highly compensated employee should, or should not, be entitled to overtime pay.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor continues to seek liquidated damages in pre-litigation settlements for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Read MoreThe SCA rules for carry forward of leave turn logic and worker rights on their head. It is like Alice in Wonderland.
Read MoreContractors 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.
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