Federal Government Contractors

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On March 31, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) rescinded a Trump Administration rule that provided a faith-based carve-out exempting federal contractors from compliance with certain anti-discrimination obligations. Federal law has long recognized a religious exemption to anti-discrimination obligations for federal contractors. The Trump Administration rule, which went into effect on January 8, 2021, expanded this faith-based carve-out. The rescission of the 2021 rule, which was published in the Federal Register on March 1, returns OFCCP to its pre-2021 religious exemption rule.Continue Reading Rescinding a Lame Duck Trump Administration Rule, DOL Returns to Its Longstanding Policy on Religious Exemptions for Federal Contractors

The federal government became the most recent employer to adopt a “Ban the Box” policy when The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act became effective December 20, 2021. The law prohibits federal contractors and most federal agencies from inquiring into an applicant’s criminal history—including arrests and convictions—prior to making a conditional job offer. Therefore, federal contractors should review their applications and hiring practices to ensure they are complying with the recently-enacted law.
Continue Reading Ban the Box: Federal Government Adopts Fair Hiring Practice

In connection with last month’s ruling from a Washington, D.C. district court reinstating the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) collection of employer pay data previously stayed by the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) (Component 2 of the revised EEO-1 form), as previously reported here, the EEOC announced on May 2, 2019 that it has opted to collect Component 2 data for 2017 in addition to 2018. On April 25, 2019, the district court ordered the EEOC to collect a second year of pay data from select employers, giving the EEOC until May 3, 2019 to advise whether it would collect 2017 or 2019 data.
Continue Reading EEOC Announces Decision to Collect 2017 Employee Pay Data, in Addition to 2018 Pay Data, by September 30, 2019

On April 25, 2019, a Washington, D.C. federal judge ruled that all employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees have until September 30, 2019 to submit their 2018 pay data to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), reflecting how much the employers paid workers of different sexes, races and ethnicities last year. This data is to be submitted as Component 2 of the EEO-1 form, and will supplement the EEOC’s long-running collection of employers’ demographic data.
Continue Reading Employers Must Provide Pay Data to EEOC by September 30

After 35 days of the government shutdown, one of the (many) issues currently facing companies who contract with government agencies affected by the shutdown is if, when, and how, they must pay their employees upon the reopening of the government.
Continue Reading Recovering After the Shutdown: Proposed Legislation to Guarantee Back Pay for Government Contractors

The White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) has indefinitely stayed the deadline for compliance with the new Employer Information Report (EEO-1 Form) for collection of annual pay and hours worked information. As previously reported, the EEO-1 Form was revised in 2016 to require certain employers to submit additional aggregate data on W-2 earnings and hours worked by employees. Specifically, the proposed revision to the EEO-1 Form, published by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) in February 2016, would require every employer with 100 employees or more to submit demographic information along with the W-2 wages and hours worked for all of its employees grouped in broad EEO-1 job categories, subdivided into twelve bands.
Continue Reading Deadline for Compliance with New EEO-1 Form Stayed Indefinitely

On September 29, 2016, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued regulations (the “final rule”) implementing Executive Order 13706, which requires federal contractors to provide paid sick leave to their employees.  According to the DOL, federal contractors employ 1.15 million individuals—594,000 of whom do not receive paid sick leave.  Thus, for contractors who do not currently provide paid sick leave to their employees, the final rule imposes significant administrative and financial burdens.  However, given the nuanced requirements of the final rule, even contractors who currently provide some form of paid sick leave to employees may find the final rule burdensome to comply with.  Contractors should act now to either develop paid sick leave policies or determine what changes need to be made to their current paid leave policies to ensure that they are in compliance with the final rule once it becomes effective.
Continue Reading Department of Labor Issues Final Rule Implementing Executive Order Requiring Paid Sick Leave for Employees of Federal Contractors

[UPDATE] On March 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed into law a Congressional Review Act (“CRA”) resolution repealing the so-called “blacklisting” rule, which would have imposed strict labor reporting and other requirements upon government contractors. This was followed by an Executive Order (“EO”) signed by President Trump the same day, effectively nullifying President Barack Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces EO that first called for the blacklisting rule. For additional details regarding the repeal, please see the April 26, 2017 blog article.

On August 25, 2016, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) and Federal Acquisition Regulatory (“FAR”) Council published “Guidance for Executive Order 13673, ‘Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces’” (“final rule”).  Also referred to as the “blacklisting” rule, it imposes strict disclosure guidelines and requires that both prospective and existing contractors – as well as subcontractors – disclose violations of federal labor laws that resulted in administrative merits determinations, civil judgments, or arbitral awards or decisions.  The final rule also requires that contractors and subcontractors disclose specific information to workers each pay period regarding their wages and prohibits contractors from requiring that their workers sign arbitration agreements that encompass Title VII violations and claims of sexual assault or harassment.Continue Reading Agencies Publish Strict New Reporting Guidelines for Government Contractors

On Thursday, February 25, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued proposed regulations for implementing Executive Order 13706, which requires federal contractors to provide up to 56 hours of paid sick leave to its employees annually. Once finalized, these regulations will have significant consequences for federal contractors; they not only govern how much paid sick leave must be provided to employees, but a variety of other topics, such as which employees are entitled to sick leave, when sick leave can be used, whether sick leave can be carried over from year to year, how employees may request sick leave, and how contractors must respond to such requests.
Continue Reading U.S. Department of Labor Issues Proposed Regulations Regarding Federal Contractors’ Obligation To Provide Paid Sick Leave To Employees