The Higher Ed Workplace Blog

Trump Signs “Blacklisting” Resolution of Disapproval

On March 27, President Trump signed into law a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution disapproving of the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” rule (the blacklisting rules) which permanently blocks implementation of the rule and any similar regulations in the future. The CRA measure was introduced by House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC), House Small Business Committee Chair Steve Chabot (R-OH) and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).

The rule would have required prospective federal contractors and subcontractors to disclose violations and alleged violations of 14 federal labor and employment laws (and their state equivalents) for the last three years to be considered for new federal contracts valued at more than $500,000. Originally set to take effect on October 25, 2016, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas granted a preliminary injunction halting most of the provisions of the rule from going into effect. The lawsuit alleged that the rule violates the First Amendment, is inconsistent with the 14 federal labor laws listed, and violates contractors’ due process rights.

Judge Marcia A. Crone wrote that the plaintiff “properly demonstrated immediate and ongoing injury to their members if the rule is allowed to take effect,” adding that the public disclosure and disqualification requirements of the rule “are nowhere found in or authorized by the statute” on which they are based. In addition, she said that the rule “appear[s] to conflict directly with every one of the labor laws they purport to invoke by permitting disqualification based solely upon ‘administrative merits determinations’ that are nothing more than allegations of fault asserted by agency employees and do not constitute final agency findings of any violation at all.”

The paycheck transparency requirements, which went into effect on January 1 and required contractors to provide notice to all workers — not just employees — on hours worked, overtime hours, rate of pay, gross pay and itemized additions to or deductions from gross pay on a weekly basis, have also been revoked.