By Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade, David B. Robbins, Jason M. Crawford and Laura Baker on Posted in Labor & EmploymentAfter a U.S. district court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining implementation of the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” final rule (discussed here), OFPP issued a Memorandum for Chief Acquisition Officers on October 25 instructing federal agencies to refrain from implementing the enjoined portions of the final rule, and to “immediately” amend any solicitations containing such… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade, David B. Robbins, Jason M. Crawford and Laura Baker on Posted in Labor & EmploymentOn October 24, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction, enjoining the Government from implementing the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” final rule (with a small carve out for the “paycheck transparency” requirements). Specifically, the Court enjoined the Government from (i) implementing any portion of the FAR Rule… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, David B. Robbins, Jason M. Crawford and Laura Baker on Posted in Labor & EmploymentStarting on October 25, many new solicitations will contain the new clauses required under the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule. These new clauses will impose significant new compliance and reporting obligations on federal contractors (and eventually on subcontractors). In a “feature comment” published in the Government Contractor, C&M attorneys provide an overview of… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade, David B. Robbins, Jason M. Crawford and Laura Baker on Posted in Labor & EmploymentMany federal government contractors and subcontractors have expressed valid concerns about the new “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” final rule (and accompanying Department of Labor guidance), which among other things will require companies bidding on covered contracts and subcontracts to disclose “administrative merits determinations,” “arbitral award or decisions,” and “civil judgments” rendered against the company… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade, David B. Robbins, Jason M. Crawford and Laura Baker on Posted in Labor & EmploymentOn August 25, 2016, the Obama Administration published the long-awaited Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) final rule and Department of Labor (DOL) final guidance implementing the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” executive order (“Executive Order”) (available here and here). The underlying executive order has been amended (available here) with purportedly technical corrections to conform the final… Continue Reading
By Angela B. Styles on Posted in GSA Schedule/Commercial Items,Labor & Employment,Legal DevelopmentsThe final year of the Obama Administration has seen a flurry of activity that will affect the government contracting community. Appearing on WJLA’s Government Matters program (available here at govtmatters.tv), Crowell & Moring Chair Angela Styles discussed some of the latest changes that will impact industry including the GSA’s final rule on transactional data reporting;… Continue Reading
By Crowell & Moring on Posted in Cost/Cost Accounting,Cybersecurity,Events,Labor & EmploymentWe’ve wrapped up our preview posts, which gave a sneak peek at a few of tomorrow and Thursday’s OOPS panels including cybersecurity (OOPS Preview: Regulating Information: Cybersecurity, Internet of Things, and Exploding Rules), costs & accounting OOPS Preview: Cost & Accounting: Items at the Top of the Ledger) , and labor and employment (OOPS Preview:… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Angela B. Styles, Kris D. Meade and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & Employment,Legal DevelopmentsIn the latest twist to the Administration’s roll-out of the new “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” rules, OIRA now identifies the rules as Economically Significant (a change from several days ago, discussed here), which means that the administration will have to provide a more detailed assessment of the likely benefits and costs of the regulatory… Continue Reading
By Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Events,Labor & EmploymentWith national elections just around the corner, the steady drumbeat of new labor-related requirements has not waned. Indeed, four national trade associations wrote to the White House in August requesting “that no further presidential directives primarily focused on government contractors be issued for the foreseeable future.” The letter cited the 16 contractor-focused regulations issued by… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Angela B. Styles, Kris D. Meade and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & Employment,Legal DevelopmentsIn a sign that the Obama Administration may be preparing to rush the publication of the FAR Council’s final rules implementing the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” executive order in order to avoid timing problems associated with the Congressional Review Act, the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (responsible for reviewing the rules… Continue Reading
By David B. Robbins, Steve McBrady and Peter J. Eyre on Posted in Labor & EmploymentBy now, government contractors are largely aware of the information gathering and reporting requirements of the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces Proposed Rule (“Fair Pay”), but whether and how to package the information proactively for the government has received less attention. Contractors would also be well served to consider their messaging and outreach efforts in… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade and Angela B. Styles on Posted in Labor & EmploymentOn February 25, the Obama Administration published a proposed rule implementing Executive Order 13706, Establishing Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors (previously discussed here). The proposed rule, which the Department of Labor estimates would impact 828,000 federal contractor employees (including approximately 436,700 employees who currently receive no paid sick leave and 391,400 employees who receive… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Angela B. Styles, Kris D. Meade and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & EmploymentThe FY 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill, passed on December 18, 2015, did not appropriate funds to establish an Office of Labor Compliance within the Department of Labor in order to implement the “Fair Play and Safe Workplaces” Executive Order, as requested by the Obama Administration. By declining to appropriate the requested funds, Congress pumped the… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Angela B. Styles, Kris D. Meade and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & EmploymentOn Nov. 19, 2015, OMB released the fall 2015 regulatory agenda of regulations currently under development, listing April 2016 as the target for publication of the final rule implementing the “Fair Pay and Safe Work Places” executive order. The final rule, which is likely to be challenged in court by contractors and industry trade groups,… Continue Reading
By Angela B. Styles, Kris D. Meade, Steve McBrady and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & EmploymentOn September 7, the Obama Administration issued a new executive order requiring that federal government contractors provide paid sick leave to employees, the latest in a series of EOs targeting federal contractors, which have to date resulted in 16 new regulations (previously discussed here, here and here). According to the White House, “[b]eginning with new… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady on Posted in Labor & EmploymentIn a recent interview with Bloomberg BNA’s Daily Labor Report, I discussed the recent deluge of Executive Orders targeting federal contractors, and the new regulations arising from those EOs (link to the article here). … Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Mark Ries and Angela B. Styles on Posted in Labor & EmploymentIn an August 3 letter to the White House, four trade associations (the AIA, PSC, NDIA, and ITIC) requested “on behalf of the thousands of companies … that no further presidential directives primarily focused on government contractors be issued for the foreseeable future.” The letter (linked here) cited a dozen recent executive orders related to… Continue Reading
By Angela B. Styles, Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & EmploymentIn an August 3 letter to eight committee and subcommittee chairs, the FAR Council and the Department of Labor indicated that the comment period for the “Fair Pay Safe Workplaces” proposed FAR Rule and related DOL Guidance would be extended to August 26 (from the current date of August 11, 2015). On July 15, as… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade, Peter J. Eyre and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & EmploymentOn July 15, 2015, the Chairmen of the House committees of jurisdiction sent a letter to Labor Secretary Tom Perez and OFPP Administrator Anne Rung regarding the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” Proposed Rule and Guidance. Citing the myriad legal, procedural and substantive flaws in the EO and resulting Proposed Rule and Guidance (previously discussed… Continue Reading
By David B. Robbins on Posted in Labor & EmploymentFor government contractors, subcontractors, and service providers interested in providing public comments on the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces proposed rule, the comment period now expires August 11. See here for details: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FAR-2014-0025-0017 Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces, if passed as proposed, would impose a rolling set of internal data gathering and reporting obligations on… Continue Reading
By Angela B. Styles, Steve McBrady, Kris D. Meade, Jason M. Crawford and Glenn D. Grant on Posted in Labor & EmploymentIn response to several requests from industry to extend the a 60-day comment period for the proposed rulemaking (NPRM) and guidance implementing the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order,” the FAR Council and the DoL have extended the comment period to August 11, 2015 (from the current date of July 27, 2015). As discussed… Continue Reading
By Angela B. Styles, Kris D. Meade, Steve McBrady, Rebecca Springer and Jason M. Crawford on Posted in Labor & EmploymentPlease join us on Wednesday, June 10, 2015, from 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., as Crowell & Moring presents the webinar, “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Proposed Rule and Guidance: What You Need to Know.” On May 28, 2015, the Obama Administration published the highly-anticipated proposed FAR rule and proposed DOL guidance implementing the Fair… Continue Reading
