While 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 MoreComp time is ordinarily only used for public sector workers or exempt employees. But sometime workers are mislassified as exempt and erroneously receive comp time. In those circumstances, the employer should get a credit for the comp time actually paid towards any premium overtime due.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act has complex rules for wages and benefits. Here is a Q&A format with a few answers to questions posed by a small business employer.
Read MoreThe Service Contract Act (“SCA”) covers all “service employees” working on or in connection with a government service contract. But that begs the issue of when a worker is directly working on a contract versus indirectly facilitating the performance of the work. As to where the coverage line is drawn, that depends on the contract terms and the employee’s job duties.
Read MoreResponding to Department of Labor investigations is not a simple exercise. While you are required to cooperate, provide documents and access to employees, you are not obligated to accept an investigator’s findings and you can question them. But, before you push back, be thoughtful. And,don’t forget to check the math.
Read MoreGiven the impending run out of grandfather contracts award and CBAs, the time is near that the sick leave Executive Order will apply to most service and construction contracts.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Labor issued All Agency Memorandum (“AAM”) no. 230 posting new health and welfare (“H&W”) fringe benefit rates for Service Contract Act (“SCA”) covered contracts effective July 5, 2019. The new H&W rates are $4.54 an hour, except if there is a sick leave Executive Order clause in the contract, whereupon the H&W rates are set at $4.22 an hour.
Read MoreThe Court of Federal Claims decsion in Just In Time Staffing maintains the long-established practice of limiting the FAR price adjustment clause to its plain language – covering the increased costs of wages and fringe benefits of the contractor’s employees and certain enumerated payroll taxes — and not to the cost to negotiate a CBA.
Read MoreTeaming arrangements provide great opportunities to corral the expertise and experience of two or more organizations to pursue federal contracts. A recent case illustrates how technicalities can hinder an otherwise qualified team.
Read MoreUpward adjustments in rates via SCA substantial variance proceedings impose a high burden of proof on the unionized employees seeking to set-aside the collectively bargained wages and benefits and impose the higher prevailing rates.
Read MoreThe “Raise the Wage Act” aims to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15.00 an hour by 2025. The FLSA minimum wage has not increased since July 24, 2009.
Read MoreIn Parker Drilling Management Services, LTD. v. Newton, the U.S. Supreme Court recently slapped down the 9th Circuit and ruled that the California state wage laws do not apply to workers on offshore oil rigs. This meant the employer had no requirement to comply with the California standby time rules, sleep time rules, or state minimum wage.
Read MoreLast fall, the Supreme Court held in Encino Motorcars LLC v. Navarro that statutes should not be construed so as to achieve perceived legislative goals where there is no “textual reason” why they should be given anything other than a “fair reading.” My colleagues and I wondered whether the “fair reading” concept might show up again. Well, it did. Enter Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.
Read MoreFederal contractors frequently face the release of their confidential information as a result of requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). On the surface, FOIA exemption 4 should protect such information from disclosure. However, long-standing precedent required contractors to establish they would suffer substantial competitive harm if their information was released. The Supreme Court today handed down a game-changing decision that could greatly simplify contractors’ efforts to keep their sensitive information secure from disclosure.
Read MoreOn Thursday June 14, 2019 the Department of Labor (“DOL”) shut down their old wage determination online website at WDOL.com and transferred the information to https://beta.sam.gov/help/wage-determinations.
Read MoreAny interested party can furnish a written submission pointing out lagging prevailing wage rates to the Wage & Hour Division, and present additional wage data for them to consider as they issue new Service Contract Act (SCA) or Davis-Bacon Act wage determinations.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor wants to raise the compensation threshold for the FLSA’s highly compensated exemption (“HCE”) test to $147,414 a year from the current $100,000. That will make the simplfied exemption test, which just requires one exempt duty, largely out of reach in most exemption disputes.
Read MoreService Contract Act (“SCA”) vacation benefits which are accrued on a pay period basis present serious compliance issues for employers trying to prove they furnished the requisite prevailing fringe benefits.
Read MoreThe SCA preempted a State law wage claim for trebled damages, giving new life to a preemption doctrine which had largely been relegated to the dustbin by clever pleading and expansive court interpretations.
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