By: Tenasha Williams

June 2, 2015

The President signed into Executive Order 13673 on July 31, 2014 as a way to guide and assist contractors and subcontractors working with the Federal government by creating comprehensive guidelines to make the contracting process more efficient and less costly. By implementing this order the Department of Labor hopes to mitigate and alleviate problems placed on contractors and avoid redundancy on documentation. Under the order, the subcontractors will be able to expose violations directly to the DOL instead of reporting the violations to contractors.

The Four Key components are as follows:

1. “Define “administrative merits determination,” “civil judgment,” and “arbitral award or decision,”
2. and provide guidance on what information related to these determinations must be reported by contractors and subcontractors;
3. define “serious,” “repeated,” “willful,” and “pervasive” violations and provide guidance to contracting officers (or contractors with respect to their subcontractors) and Labor Compliance Advisors for assessing reported violations, including mitigating factors to consider;
4. and provide guidance on the Order’s paycheck transparency provisions, including identifying those States whose wage statement laws are substantially similar to the Order’s wage statement requirement such that providing a worker with a wage statement that complies with any of those State laws satisfies the Order’s requirement. “-Executive Order 13673

The DOL will then report on the violations to the contractors. They are calling this a “Phase In, Slow down” process. Additionally, the DOL has yet to find a State law that is equivalent to the order.

DOL is asking for Public Comments during a 60-day period (ending on July 27^th).

How to take action: You may submit comments, identified by ZRIN 1290-ZA02, by either of the following methods:

Electronic comments: Comments may be sent via http://www.regulations.gov, a Federal E-Government Web site that allows the public to find, review, and submit comments on documents that agencies have published in the Federal Register and that are open for comment. Simply type in “guidance on fair pay and safe workplaces” (in quotes) in the Comment or Submission search box, click Go, and follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Mail: Address written submissions to Tiffany Jones, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S- 2312, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210.

Instructions: Please submit only one copy of your comments by only one method. All submissions must include the agency name and ZRIN, identified above, for this document. Please be advised that comments received will become a matter of public record and will be posted without change tohttp://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. Comments that are mailed must be received by the date indicated for consideration. For additional information on submitting comments and the guidance process, see the “Invitation to Comment” section of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION provided later in this document.

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments, go to http://www.regulations.gov. Docket name: Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces. Docket ID: DOL- 2015-0002.