Court Case Alert: District Court Blocks DOL's Rule On Construction Contract Wages

     On Monday, June 24, 2024, a Texas federal district court blocked the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) enforcement of certain of the changes that DOL made in a Final Rule issued in August 2023 to its Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) regulations.

     In its Final Rule, which became effective in October 2023, DOL made several changes to its DBA regulations in order to expand coverage under the DBA, including by defining key terms under the regulations to include truck drivers and assistants who make deliveries to covered construction sites and to include certain material suppliers. The Final Rule changes also made application of the DBA requirements “by operation of law,” which had the effect of applying prevailing wage requirements retroactively to procurements that wrongly omitted applicable FAR clauses in their solicitations.

     The district court’s decision issued on Monday imposes a nationwide preliminary injunction that blocks DOL from enforcing these changes to the DBA regulations.

     Importantly, however, DOL’s Final Rule made other changes to the DBA regulations that were not blocked by the district court case and that, thus, remain in place, including increased contract flow-down and record keeping requirements and expansion of DBA coverage to certain “green” equipment installations.  You can read the district court’s decision here.