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Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Rule Partially Blocked

on Monday, 21 November 2016 in Labor & Employment Law Update: Sarah M. Huyck, Editor

On October 24, 2016, a U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the majority of the provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulations and the Department of Labor guidance document implementing the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order. Specifically, the rule requiring federal contractors with high dollar federal contracts to disclose “labor law” violations when bidding on a contract, has been enjoined. Similarly, the court blocked the prohibition on pre-dispute arbitration agreements for matters related to Title VII and sexual assault. This is a nationwide injunction, and contractors will not have to comply with these provisions while the litigation plays out.

Note, however, that the Paycheck Transparency component of the Final Rule was not blocked, and will still go into effect on January 1, 2017. Consequently, covered federal contractors who make bids covered by the Final Rule will have to provide wage statements to their non-exempt employees, inform exempt employees that they are exempt, and notify independent contractors of their status.

We discussed the broader Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, and other recent Federal Contractor/Affirmative Action developments in a webinar in early October. You can purchase the archived webinar here.

 

Kelli P. Lieurance

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