SCA Contracts

The DOL has sufficient funding to hire over 200 full time additional Wage & Hour Investigators. The funding was provided over the past several years by the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA).

Timothy J. Helm, Chief for the Branch of Government Contracts Enforcement for the Wage & Hour Division of the DOL has been responsible for the hiring and training of these individuals. According to Mr. Helm and his staff, open investigations are at an all-time low as a result of the additional investigators. At the quarterly Professional Services Council (PSC) Labor Relations meetings, Mr. Helm spoke of violations following a DOL audit, mentioning that his goal is to debar contractors instead of negotiating settlements with them.

We have been encouraging contractors, as a result of the above, to ensure that all their personnel dealing with these Service Contact Act (SCA) and Davis Bacon Act (DBA) contracts have the appropriate training to handle DOL audits. If contractors have not had all their respective personnel properly trained, they should make sure that this is done as quickly as possible.

We have been coordinating Service Contract Act training programs for the PSC Association three times a year, and these will continue in 2012 in March, June and November. We have also designed a one-day Davis Bacon training program that will be held in early April 2012. The DOL Wage & Hour staff has agreed to participate in this training, as they have always done with the SCA programs.

Additionally, MARAL, LLC has been offering SCA and DBA one day training programs in Rosslyn, VA and at client locations for the past several years. Their schedule and registration procedures can be found on www.eventville.com/maral or e-mail Al Corvigno at acorvigno@marall.com.

Some contractors are reluctant to provide their employees working on SCA or DBA contracts the appropriate fringe benefits listed on their respective Wage Determinations. In lieu of providing the fringe benefits, they choose to pay a cash value. While this meets the minimum legal requirement, it actually increases the cost to both the contractors and the employees due to the taxable implications.

At Cleary, we know how important a comprehensive benefits package can be to your continued success. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700 and we will work with you to create a plan that meets your fringe benefit obligations and provides your employees with valuable benefits.