The FLSA Is 80 Years Old—Has It Made Us Wiser?
This week marks the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (“FLSA”) 80th birthday. Because I have a particular affection for birthdays, this occasion is a good time to send the FLSA some overdue love and reflect on how it continues to challenge us today. The FLSA was passed in 1938 in the midst of the industrial revolution and on the heels of the Great Depression, which perpetuated a culture of workforce abuse and child labor. The FLSA’s most basic premise is that . . . Read More
Don’t Get Disqualified Because of Organizational Conflicts of Interest
A recent decision from the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) reiterates two important principles concerning organizational conflicts of interest (“OCIs”). First, proactive measures may allow a contractor to effectively mitigate and avoid an OCI. Second, appearances, innuendo, and suspicion are insufficient to establish that a contractor has an OCI. Hard facts are required. In Archimedes Global, Inc. , B-415886.2 (June 1, 2018), the protester challenged the agency’s decision to exclude it from a competition because of an alleged OCI. By way of background, the . . . Read More
Doing Business Internationally? Litigation Just Became More Difficult!
Over the last twenty years, the expanding world market has made it easier for domestic companies to conduct business overseas and with foreign corporations. Large and small businesses alike are going global, receiving and providing products, services, and intellectual property internationally. But, along with new international opportunities comes an increase in the complexity of business-to-business transactions. And, when business deals between domestic and foreign businesses go south, the legal implications become more difficult to navigate. Each nation and each state . . . Read More
PilieroMazza’s Commitment to Advocating for All Small Businesses and Our Clients
A recent blog has come to our attention that discusses a nearly year old case involving an Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) entity. In that case, we appealed a size determination and argued that an ANC entity was too reliant on the experience of its two subcontractors, one of which was its sister company. This situation indicated that the prime contractor may have violated the ostensible subcontractor rule by its undue reliance on its subcontractors to qualify for the contract at . . . Read More
Pursuing a CTA Team Solution? Make Sure You’re on an Eligible Team!
Contractor Team Arrangements (CTA) formed to pursue GSA Schedule task order opportunities are unique animals in the government contracting universe. A mashup of elements taken from joint ventures and more traditional prime-sub relationships, CTAs allow two or more Schedule contract holders to combine their respective Schedule contract offerings in response to an ordering agency’s solicitation. GSA guidance is clear that for Schedule obligations—such as reporting sales and paying the Industrial Funding Fee (IFF)—each CTA Team Member is considered to be . . . Read More
SAM Registration Update: Notarized Letter Requirement Change and New Deadline Looming
As most government contractors may know by now, in order to proactively fight against alleged fraudulent activity in the System for Award Management (SAM), the General Services Administration (GSA) issued a rule that required all entities to “provide an original, signed notarized letter stating that you are the authorized Entity Administrator before your registration will be activated.” On June 11, 2018, GSA issued an update to the notarized letter requirement in two parts. The first, which went into effect on . . . Read More
SBA Eliminates “Direct” Ownership Rules for HUBZone Program
On March 26, 2018, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a direct final rule that changed the wording of 13 C.F.R. § 126.200(b)(1) to allow indirect ownership by U.S. citizens of companies in the HUBZone program. The stated purpose of the rule change is to align more accurately the rule with the underlying statutory authority. Prior to this change the HUBZone rules required that a HUBZone company be “unconditionally and directly owned” by U.S. citizens. The rule took effect . . . Read More
Worried About Class Actions? SCOTUS Recently Handed Employers a Hall Pass.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Epic Systems v. Lewis that employers may, as a condition of employment, require employees to sign arbitration agreements containing class action waivers. The Court rejected the NLRB’s position that such agreements infringe on employees’ right to engage in collective action under the National Labor Relations Act. Instead, the Court gave weight to the Arbitration Act, which, Justice Gorsuch wrote, supports “pretty absolutely” rights for employers and employees to contract for arbitration. While arbitration is often touted as . . . Read More
GAO Overturns OTA Award to REAN Cloud
On May 31, 2018, GAO sustained a protest filed by Oracle America, Inc. (“Oracle”) challenging the Army’s entry into a follow-on production other transaction agreement (“OTA”) with REAN Cloud LLC (“REAN”). Oracle alleged that the Army did not properly exercise its authority in entering the follow-on production OTA with REAN. GAO agreed. The OTA was for the migration of legacy software applications to a commercial cloud service provider. REAN is an Amazon Web Services partner. The initial award was $950 . . . Read More
OHA Reaffirms the Relevancy of the Date of Self-Certification
In the Matter of ASIRTek Federal Services, LLC, SBA No. VET-269 (2018), SBA found that the apparent awardee of a contract set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (“SDVOSB”) was ineligible as an offeror because its joint venture agreement (“JVA”) failed to conform to the regulatory requirements. On appeal, SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (“OHA”) upheld the finding of ineligibility, noting that the appellant’s JVA was defunct because it was dated more than a year before the solicitation was . . . Read More