Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Resource List

Executive Order –Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces

Information from a briefing letter from the US Chamber of Commerce of which CUE is a member.   If you are a federal contractor, this is a big deal, and there have already been reports that labor unions view it as a very important new type of leverage to use against employers.

On Wednesday, the administration released (pre-Federal Register issuance) their package of final Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council regulations and DOL guidance to implement Executive Order 13673, Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, aka, “blacklisting.” The Order will require prospective federal contractors to disclose their “violations” (as broadly defined by the DOL guidance) of 14 labor and workplace laws before receiving a contract award.  Agencies will use this information to determine whether prospective contractors are responsible sources that should be awarded contracts. The same reporting requirement will repeat every six months for the duration of the contract.  If a contractor, or potential contractor, is not in compliance, the relevant agency will be contacted for the purpose of trying to get that contractor to agree to a “labor compliance agreement” that can then be provided as mitigating evidence against any reported violations.

The 14 labor and employment laws and E.Os are:

• The Fair Labor Standards Act
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (including OSHA-approved State Plans equivalent to State Laws)
• The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act
• The National Labor Relations Act
• 40 U.S.C. chapter 31, subchapter IV, also known as the Davis-Bacon Act
• 41 U.S.C. chapter 67, also known as the Service Contract Act
• Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment Opportunity)
• Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• The Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1972 and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974
• The Family and Medical Leave Act
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
• Executive Order 13658 of February 12, 2014 (Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors)
• While the Order also covers equivalent state laws, with the exception of OSHA approved State Plans, equivalent state laws will not be covered in the current guidance and rule; a separate rulemaking will be needed to implement these.

Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces head page: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/

Description of contractor disclosure requirements: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/ContractorDisclosures.htm

Description of Paycheck Transparency provisions: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/PaycheckTransparency.htm

Description of prohibition on mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses for contracts over $1 million: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/MandatoryArbitration.htm

Description of Agency Labor Compliance Advisors: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/ALCADirectory.htm

Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/FAQs.htm

Comparison between proposed and final regulations and guidance: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/FPSW-FARRuleSide-by-Side.pdf

DOL Fact sheet on E.O. and final regulations and guidance: https://www.dol.gov/asp/fairpayandsafeworkplaces/FactSheet.htm

Text of final FAR regulation (Federal Register): https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-08-25/pdf/2016-19676.pdf

Text of final DOL guidance (Federal Register): https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-08-25/pdf/2016-19678.pdf