President Signs Joint Resolution Repealing Government Contractor “Blacklisting” Rule
Earlier this week, on Monday, March 27, 2017, President Trump signed a joint resolution (which you can read here) declaring that the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule would “have no force or effect.”
As we wrote about in our prior bulletin here, on June 30, 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13673 (the “E.O.”), entitled Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, mandating that before a contracting officer can award a contract, he or she must determine if a contractor is a responsible source to do business with the federal government. The E.O. and subsequent implementing final FAR regulation (found here) consequently required contractors bidding on contracts with a value over $500,000 to disclose whether they have been found to have violated 14 identified federal labor laws and executive orders, or their state law equivalents. In addition, prospective subcontractors were required to make similar disclosures for subcontracts with an estimated valued over $500,000 at any tier, with the exception of subcontracts for commercially available off-the-shelf items. The E.O. and FAR rule also required agencies to adopt procedures to assist contractors and subcontractors to comply with labor laws, required contractors and subcontractors to provide individuals with information each pay period regarding how they are paid (the “paycheck transparency” rule), required contractors and subcontractors to provide notice to workers who are treated as independent contractors that they are so treated, and addressed mandatory arbitration of certain employee claims.
Last October, however, a day before the FAR rule was to take effect, a district court decision granted a preliminary injunction (which you can read here) that put all aspects of the E.O. and FAR rule on hold except for the paycheck transparency rule.
The joint resolution signed by President Trump earlier this week now repeals all aspects of the E.O. and FAR rule, including the paycheck transparency rule.
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