By Eugene Mulero, Staff Reporter This story appears in the Aug. 11 print edition of Transport Topics.
President Obama signed an executive order last month that requires federal contractors to disclose their labor law violations, a move meant to boost employees’ rights in labor disputes.
The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which takes effect in 2016, applies to new federal contracts worth more than $500,000, according to the White House.
The order requires agencies to appoint officers to examine contractors’ labor violations, and it calls on companies — such as trucking firms — to provide recent information to their workers on their hours worked and pay and deductions. The order also provides guidance to companies aimed at helping them avoid labor law violations.
Additionally, before earning a federal contract, firms would be required to disclose violations during the past three years.
The order, signed July 31, is part of the president’s strategy to proceed on policy decisions without Congress’ approval, a move largely opposed by House and Senate Republicans.
At the signing event in Washington, Obama justified the order, explaining, “The goal here is to make sure this action raises standards across the economy, encourages contractors to adopt better practices for all their employees, not just those working on federal contracts, give responsible businesses that play by the rules a fairer shot to compete for business.”
Sean McNally, vice president of public affairs for American Trucking Associations, raised concerns about the executive order, saying it directs agencies procuring larger contracts to “ignore efficient procurement and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars in the name of extracting another pound of flesh from companies that have been found to violate any of a broad range of federal and state laws that may have no relevance to the services being offered.”
McNally added, “Congress and state legislatures have already made reasoned judgments about the penalties to be had for violations of these complex laws, and further penalties at the stroke of the president’s pen do not serve the public interest.”
But several senior Democrats and labor activists praised the president’s action. Sen. Tom Harkin D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the executive order “will be an important step forward to give the government more tools to effectively confront and deter workplace wage and safety violations.”
“Companies that receive federal contracts employ 22 percent of the workforce, so this action will raise working conditions for millions of Americans,” Harkin said in a statement.
Joseph Geevarghese, deputy director of Change to Win, a union coalition, added the order would help to expose federal contractors’ labor violations.
“The president is leading by example. Establishing the principle that if you are breaking the law, you don’t get to do business with the biggest employer in the country — the federal government,” Geevarghese told reporters.
