To address the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Delta variant surge, President Biden announced yesterday that he will implement sweeping new requirements to increase vaccination rates across the country.  Among the changes:

  1. OSHA is developing a new emergency rule directing all businesses with 100 or more employees to require their employees be (1) vaccinated

Although it’s almost been four years since it was issued in January 2009, Executive Order 13495, known as “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts” (74 Fed. Reg. 6103) has not had much impact upon government contracting employers. That is about to change as the final rule and regulations that will make Executive Order 13495 enforceable go into effective January 18, 2013.  

What Executive Order 13496 Says

Executive Order 13495 requires most federal service contractors (including subcontractors)under a contract that succeeds a contract for performance of the same or similar services at the same location to offer the predecessor contractor’s employees a right of first refusal of employment under the contract for those positions for which they qualify. The requirement imposed by the Executive Order does not require a successor contractor to hire all of its predecessor’s employees. Successor contractors may still reduce the size of the workforce and give first preference to certain members of its own workforce (those employees that have worked for the successor contractor for at least three months and face layoff if they are not employed on the new contract). Certain contracts are exempt from this hiring obligation and waivers may be granted by senior procurement executives in limited circumstances.Continue Reading New Hiring Obligations for Federal Service Contractors Effective January 18, 2013

Once again, employers are being given an old line: we are from the federal government and we’re here to help you . . . with your office decorating. Shortly after his inauguration, President Obama issued Executive Order 13496 (the “Order”). The Order directed that all federal contractors post a notice to their employees advising the employees of their

Most of us assume that if an employee swears at a manager or, he or she can be disciplined or even fired.  That assumption may be wrong, depending on the context in which the swearing occurs.  A federal judge recently held that the Federal Aviation Administration violated federal labor law when it removed a local union president from its premises

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that allows the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to continue investigating allegations of employment discrimination, and even to issue subpoenas to employers, after issuing a right-to-sue letter to the employee who filed the initial complaint.  Click here to read the Ninth Circuit decision in

Starting September 8, 2009, employers receiving federal contracts will be required to use the new E-Verify system to check their employees’ authorization to work in the United States.  This announcement comes after several delayed attempts by the Bush and Obama administrations to implement the E-Verify rule; however, their efforts were thwarted by a stay issued

If you pay your employees minimum wage, prepare to give them a raise effective today:  the federal minimum wage increases to $7.25 per hour, effective July 24.  Of course, you may live in a state that has a higher minimum wage; in that case, employers are obligated to pay the higher of the two wages. 

The memorandum issued by President Obama yesterday extends some benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees, including access to a government insurance program that pays for long-term conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, and to sick leave to care for a sick same-sex partner or a non-biological child.  However, the extension did not provide eligibility