I always thought the lawyer rating business was a scam mostly directed at lawyers.
Read More
Here is a follow up to a blog I wrote last month. I am puzzled why the Wage & Hour Division (“WHD”) would ever think it proper to withhold money from the prime contractor where the SCA clauses or wage determinations were originally left out of the government contract. One of the WHD duties is to not withhold money from the contractor for issues which relate to changes in the contract which were ordered by the Government. That is a breach of contract. Instead, This adjustment must be paid for by the procuring agency, and that means funding the change order and paying for the cost of the increased wages and benefits arising from the correction of the Government’s own errors.
Read More
Here is my tribute to The Maltese Falcon and the stuff that dreams are made of.
Read MoreWhen a Service Contract Act (“SCA”) wage determination (“WD”) is omitted from a covered Government service contract and then added into the contract after award, that triggers a right to a price adjustment under the Changes clause, which adjustment includes overhead, G&A and profit.
Read MoreFor many government contractors, benefit plans are the more cost‑effective, employee friendly, and compliant solution. But the ultimate decision is a business judgment, and there are circumstances where it is easier to pay the cash fringes.
Read More
New Service Contract Act (“SCA”) health and welfare (“H&W’) rates for 2026 - 2027 have supposedly been determined but I cannot find any public official DOL announcement.
Read MoreIt has been a long 41-year largely continuous run, but I have decided to hang my instructor gig up in 2026. Tomorrow, I will teach my last virtual seminar for Federal Publications. And this summer I will teach my last in-person live session. All things must pass. Here is a thank you to all my students.
Read MoreIt is the inaugural National Apprenticeship Week (“NAW”), so let’s review the events this week at DOL.
Read MoreCount me as one who hates change. I find the so-called “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul to be unnecessary, confusing, and likely to lead to more not less procurement disputes.
Read MoreThe legal bots are coming for my job. Last year some crawler pored over my 200+ wage and hour blogs at www.awrcounsel.com and devoured them into some large language model/library of knowledge. I am the instrument of my own destruction! As the saying goes, most of us contain the seeds of our own destruction.
Read MoreIt is the last day of an eventful year. I thought I would try my hand at predicting what happens in the government contract world in 2026.
Read MoreIn the usual course of events, any SCA price adjustment proposed must be grounded in the contractor’s actual incurred costs, not the costs the contractor proposed that it would incur when it agreed to the contract.
Read MoreI have looked at the FAR Part 22 labor and employment provision changes in the proposed Revolutionary FAR Overhaul. To my eyes they don’t seem so “revolutionary.” Mostly, what they do is move the interpretive regulations to the new FAR Companion or other resources. That may reduce their importance. And that may make it easier to evade compliance. But that isn’t likely to change much for the prevailing wage field since the FAR regulations were simply a restatement of the Department of Labor’s (“DOL’s”) Part 4 and 5 regulations found in 29 Code of Federal Regulation. Those DOL regulations have been around for a long time. Taking provisions out of the regulatory book (yet leaving DOL’s regulatory scheme in place) and leaving existing statutory provisions on the books, does NOT constitute a “revolution.”
Read MoreThe end of the Government shutdown comes with some surprising off year election results.
Read MoreMake no mistake about it — the fault for the continuing Federal Government shut down rests with the President. And the impact on government contractors and their workers is now going to be significant.
Read MoreGovernment service contractors need to exercise restraint and avoid bidding on work involving unionized contractors with insolvent union pension plans. They are a trap for the unwary.
Read MoreThis back-to-basics blog just touches on a few of the many possible issues that come up under the SCA section 4(c) successor contractor rule. That rule can require successor contractor to pay not less than the wages and fringes set forth in the predecessor’s collective bargaining agreement. It is a very complex area of the law, and it is one place where the engagement of competent SCA counsel may aid in dealing with disputes.
Read MoreDOL is issuing so-called non-standard Service Contract Act (“SCA”) wage determinations (“WDs”) using a numbering scheme which deceives contractors and results in inadvertent violations of the rules regarding furnishing of health & welfare (“H&W”) benefits.
Read MoreAre workers who perform testing, adjusting and balancing (“TAB “) work on heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) systems “laborers or mechanics” to whom Davis-Bacon requirements may be applicable? Under what circumstances is TAB work on HVAC systems part of the construction, alteration, and/or repair on a DBA-covered project, and hence subject to DBA labor standards?
Read More