Regardless 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.
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 MoreEffective January 1, 2021, Federal Government contractors will be required to pay certain employees working on or in connection with a Government contract at least $10.95 an hour. This is a 15 cent an hour increase (i.e., 1.4%) over the current Contractor Minimum Wage.
Read MoreWhen new employees start work on a SCA covered contract, the employer faces a connundrum with respect to vacation bnefits. The employer can furnish the benefits immediately, and just pay benefits in excess of the SCA, resulting in payments above the minimum prevailing wage and impairing its right to a price adjustment the next option year. Or it can pay no vacation benefits, or just give leave without pay, and demoralize the new workers. But there is a third although relatively infrequently used course of action called an advanced or prepayment agreement or policy whereby the worker elects to receive the vacation benefit immediately on hiring, but the employer reserves the ability to get a credit for furnishing the benefit on the next anniversay date of employment.
Read MoreMany service contracts require that certain jobs, i.e., “key positions,” be held by highly qualified personnel dedicated to the project. So, what happens if that rock star project manager you spent months recruiting for a “key position” bails out on you in the middle of the competition to win the very contract the rock star was proposed to manage?
Read MoreDOL requires the annual use or cash out of the vacation benefit under the SCA and does not allow covered workers to bank or carry forward the unused vacation leave into another anniversary period .
Read MoreDrilling work presents a a perrenial issue of which prevailing wage law is in play. One of the most challenging parts of wage and hour law revolves around the overlap of Service Contract Act (“SCA”) and Davis-Bacon Act (“DBA”) coverage. It is entirely possible for an employee doing the same physical drilling activity to be covered by a different wage law on the next contract.
Read MoreHere is a short summary of the differing scope of geographical coverage of the various federal wage and hour laws.
Read MoreUnder The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”), employers must pay the coronavirus leave in addition to any other leave requried by the prevailing wage laws. There is no credit or offset. As to whether government contractors must also pay additional health and welfare benefits, on top of the virus leave, for the time being that ball is up in the air, awaiting DOL clarification, although prudent employers may decide to pay it nonethless in the interim given the uncertainty.
Read MoreThe Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and sent to the Senate this week. The bill would allow for two weeks of fully paid sick leave and up to 10 weeks of partially paid leave (at two-thirds pay) for workers of small business employers meeting certain conditions. The leave would be financed by a tax credit.
Read MoreWhen it comes to the timing of negotiating and implementing a Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”), the Service Contract Act (“SCA”) can be unforgiving. Contractors must give timely notice of a newly-minted CBA if they want a price adjustment for the increased costs of SCA compliance under the CBA. A recent decision from the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (“ASBCA”) reminds us that there is a vital prerequisite to this general rule: the Government has its own notice obligations.
Read MoreHow frequently do employers have to pay their workers? The answer is it depends. Some of the variables it can depend on include wheher the employer is working on a government construction contract, what state the worker is performing labor in, what is the classification of the worker (exempt or nonexempt), and how much is the worker paid.
Read MoreUnder the FAR SCA Price Adjustment clause, notice must be furnished to the Government within 30 days of receipt of a new wage determination to be incorporated into a contract in the option or extended period of performance. But that notice proviso is not interpreted strictly and it should not be used to bar price adjustment claims as per se untimely after the 30 day window has past.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act once had an expansive exemption for certain commercial contracts, but the current iteration of the DOL and FAR rules cut back on that significantly and left a very restricted SCA prime and subcontract exemption that few contractors can use.
Read MoreWhen government service contractors unionize, they can pass the cost of any well-timed wage and benefit increases to the US government under the Service Contract Act Price Adjustment clause.
Read MoreThe wage and hour section of the beta.sam.gov website continues to be debeviled with small problems and offers diminished resources to the public.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act (“SCA”) presents both opportunities and peril each time a contractor submits a proposal to work on a covered contract. This is a primer on some of those pitfalls and opportunities.
Read MoreUnder the Service Contract Act (“SCA”), employers with self-insured unfunded health and weflare (“H&W”) plans are better off forming a trust and paying acturial premiums into the trust monthly so they can get proper credit for the fringe benefits furnished.
Read MoreWhile the Service Contract Act (“SCA”) price adjustment clause requires contractors to submit their price adjustment prposals within 30 days of the contract modification adding a new wage determination, the Board says that requirement is not jurisdictional and doesn’t bar the claim. However, a failure of proof of actual costs will bar the recovery.
Read MoreOrdinarily, a service contractor has the duty to compare the employee positions that will be providing service under a contract with an applicable SCA wage determination so as to ascertain how much the employees should be paid and what benefits they receive. In a recent case, the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals held that that is not always the case.
Read More