President Obama recently issued two Executive Orders designed to ensure that federal contractors maintain strict compliance with various labor-related laws and regulations if they wish to remain eligible for federal contracts.  Taken together, these Executive Orders place significant new compliance burdens on federal contractors

The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order (No. 13673) creates a series of new reporting and evaluation requirements for federal contractors.  Contractors must collect, maintain, and disclose data on any violations of labor laws.  Agencies must appoint Labor Compliance Advisors to evaluate this data and coordinate their analysis with the contracting officer’s responsibility determination.  The order also creates new reporting requirements for employee pay and hour data and severely restricts employers’ ability to require binding arbitration for employee grievances based on sexual assault, harassment, or claims arising out of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.  The order calls for rulemaking by the Department of Labor and proposed amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The Non-Retaliation for Disclosure of Compensation Information Executive Order (No. 13665) targets prohibitions on discussing and disclosing information related to compensation.  The order aims to increase transparency within companies to detect and interdict compensation discrimination.  Under the proposed rule issued by the Department of Labor on September 15, 2014, agencies must include a new nondiscrimination provision in all contracts valued at more than $10,000.  With limited exceptions, contractors may not discriminate against an employee who inquires about or discloses compensation information.