After receiving approval by a 49-48 vote in the Senate on Monday, legislation headed for President Trump’s signature will discard an Obama administration rule that punishes federal contractors who have cheated their workers on overtime pay and the minimum wage.
The bill would repeal an executive order that also targeted companies cited for unsafe workplaces or discriminatory practices.
A Senate Democratic report released Monday found that, of the federal government’s 100 largest contractors, 66 have been caught breaking federal labor laws. Those top 100 received nearly $240 billion in tax dollars in 2015. The largest contractor, Lockheed Martin, had nearly 3,000 violation and has agreed back pay for workers of $3.5 million.
The study also revealed that, of the 100 largest penalties imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since Jan. 1, 2015, more than a third were issued to companies that have held federal contracts within the last decade.
The new rule, which has been tied up in the courts, would grant preferential treatment to bidders on federal contracts that have not engaged in anti-labor activities. The executive order, signed by President Obama in August, required employers bidding on federal contracts to disclose violations and alleged violations of 14 federal labor laws, and similar state labor laws, over the past three years.
That list included violations of minimum wage and overtime, health and safety, collective bargaining and civil rights.
The GovExec website reports that business groups cried foul, labeling it the “blacklisting” rule, and filed lawsuits to block it.
Trump is expected to sign the bill based on previous statements and two of the president’s choices for his Cabinet: Treasury Secretary Elaine Chao and Andy Puzder, who later withdrew as the Labor Secretary nominee. Both have an extensive history of failing to enforce, or comply with, federal labor laws.
The House approved the bill protecting contractors last month by a 236-187 margin.
Senate Republicans on Monday latched onto the corporate argument that the Obama rule doesn’t allow for due process.
But a record of violations wouldn’t necessarily mean that a company can’t secure a federal contract. Only actual violations would enter into agency decisions on awarding a contract and procurement officers would work with the companies to come into compliance with the law.
According to the Labor Department, the rule would apply to roughly 14,000 contractors each year but only a small percentage of those are likely to have “serious, repeated, willful, or pervasive violations to report.”
In a blog written for The Huffington Post by two former officials at Obama’s Labor Department, they urged Republicans not to kill the rule. Hold contractors to higher standards than in the past, argued Sharon Block and Chris Lu, just as Trump pressured Carrier not to lay off Indiana workers partly because the air conditioning manufacturer benefits from federal money.
“Trump implicitly threatened Carrier’s future as a government contractor because of corporate behavior that he perceived to be contrary to the best interests of its employees — namely, by moving their jobs out of the country,” they wrote. “We challenge the new president to show us that he is committed to standing up to federal contractors to deliver lasting wins for American workers — and not just looking for press-friendly sound bites.”
Photo: Wikicommons
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