![]() GAO was asked to review SCA implementation and enforcement. government obligated over $720 billion on service contracts covered under the SCA. From fiscal years 2014 through 2019, the U.S. The SCA ensures that service workers on certain federal contracts receive pay and benefits that reflect current employment conditions in their locality. Without improved information sharing by DOL, an agency may award a contract to an employer without being aware of or considering its past SCA violations. DOL also does not have a process that consistently or reliably informs contracting agencies about SCA violations by employers. When recording SCA debarments, DOL does not always include the unique identifier for an employer so that contracting agencies can accurately identify debarred firms. GAO found that contracting agencies may face SCA implementation challenges, including not having key information about SCA debarments and violations from DOL. Without addressing communication issues between USPS and DOL, USPS's implementation and DOL's enforcement of the SCA may be weakened. Postal Service (USPS)-can affect and delay cases, though USPS officials told GAO they were unaware of any communication gaps. For example, DOL officials told GAO that poor communication with contracting agencies-particularly with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.ĭOL reported various challenges to enforcing the SCA, including difficulty communicating with contracting agencies. Values are adjusted for inflation and expressed in fiscal year 2019 dollars using the Gross Domestic Product Price Index from the U.S. Note: Mail haul refers to surface mail transportation by contract carriers. Therefore, DOL may lack a complete picture of how it uses resources on different strategies for resolving SCA cases, as well as the effectiveness of these enforcement strategies.īack Wages Paid for SCA Cases in Example Industries, Fiscal Years 2014-2019 However, DOL does not analyze its use of enforcement tools, such as debarment or employer compliance agreements. DOL's strategic plan emphasizes optimizing resources for resolving cases using all available enforcement tools. Sixty cases resulted in debarment-a decision to prevent an employer from being awarded new federal contracts for 3 years. ![]() Employers across a range of service industries agreed to pay around $224 million in back wages (see figure for examples). DOL found SCA violations-primarily of wage and benefit protections-in 68 percent of cases. DOL enforces the SCA, which was enacted to protect workers on certain types of federal service contracts. The Department of Labor (DOL) completed over 5,000 Service Contract Act (SCA) cases, which for many resulted in the awarding of back wages to federally contracted security guards, janitors, and other service workers, in fiscal years 2014 through 2019, according to available data.
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