Do you do business with the federal government? If you do, you (hopefully!) know that keeping up with the rules and regulations of being a federal contractor are no easy task. But we are here to help!
Lawyers at our firm, including HRLawMatters contributor Jim McCabe, have written an incredibly helpful article to help federal contractor employers comply with recent changes to their obligations. This article was recently published on the DirectEmployers Association website – and you can see it at this link here. The article, entitled “Five Steps to Compliance with the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule” gives clear guidance on how to make sure you are in compliance with the so-called federal contract “blacklisting” rules. As you will see from the article, the new rules are being phased in over the next year, starting as soon as October 25, 2016, and put a number of new duties on federal contractors, including:
- disclosing “labor law decisions” both before and after contract award, which the federal government will use in making their “responsibility” determinations: deciding whether the contractor is a responsible source to whom a contract may be awarded;
- giving a wage statement to employees containing for each workweek the number of hours worked, the number of overtime hours, rate of pay, additions to and from gross pay, and total gross pay;
- providing written notice to independent contractors that they are independent contractors and not employees; and
- forbidding contractors from entering into agreements with employees or independent contractors that require arbitration of claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (which includes discrimination and retaliation claims based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin) or sexual harassment claims.
All federal contractors will have to understand these new rules and put in place procedures to ensure they are in compliance with them — and soon. Jim and his co-author, David P. Goodwin, lay out 5 concrete and clear steps that all federal contractors should follow to make sure they get in compliance. The article also includes a very helpful graphic of their 5 steps (for those of you who like visualizing the tasks), which is included here:
If you are federal contractor (or even thinking of trying to become one), this article is a must-read!