Contractors Brace For “Fair Pay And Safe Workplaces”

Executive Order E.O. 13673 (“Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces”) was issued in July of 2014. Given the breadth of this executive action, it is critical that companies understand its obligations even before the E.O. is implemented.

The order requires government contractors and subcontractors to report regularly on violations of 14 different workplace laws and executive orders, and state law equivalents. It directs federal agencies to use this information to determine whether a contractor is a “responsible source” during the award process. The required information must be updated once the contract is awarded to determine whether the contract will be continued, or cancelled. In either phase of the contracting cycle, a contractor’s report of violations may result in notification to a suspending and debarring official for further action.

The Department of Labor issued proposed guidance and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council issued proposed regulations, in May 2015. While these are likely to be modified in final rule-makings, it’s clear that contractors must devote substantial resources to ensure compliance with the new obligations, in order to avoid the potentially dire results of reporting violations that are found to be “serious, repeated, willful or pervasive”

The authors summarize the reporting requirements under this E.O. They characterize them as burdensome and onerous, but stress that companies need to plan now for how they will satisfy them. The potential ramifications of not doing so, they write, are too serious to ignore.