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Inauguration Holiday?


CHILINVLN

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I'm trying to figure out how to handle this guidance for our company.  We have a variety of T&M and FFP contracts, all in the affected areas noted in the paragraph.  Do I have no choice but to provide a holiday, or can this be forced telework?  I appreciate any guidance.

 

Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, falls on a Friday. An employee who works in the District of Columbia, Montgomery or Prince George's Counties in Maryland, Arlington or Fairfax Counties in Virginia, or the cities of Alexandria or Fairfax in Virginia, and who is regularly scheduled to perform nonovertime work on Inauguration Day, is entitled to a holiday. (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(c).) There is no in-lieu-of holiday for employees who are not regularly scheduled to work on Inauguration Day./p>

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Guest PepeTheFrog

PepeTheFrog assumes you work for a company that has several Federal contracts, and that you found that language at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website.

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/fact-sheets/holidays-work-schedules-and-pay

The OPM guidance is for Federal employees. Federal employees will have a Federal holiday on January 20. You work for a company, and the company's employees are not Federal employees.

Is there a particular clause or section of your contract(s) that leads to wonder if you "have no choice" regarding holidays your company provides for its employees?

Is there more information, or a better way to phrase this question?

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I would have to pull up language in the contract to verify, but it's my understanding that we provide support to the Government and since our positions are non-essential, when the Government is closed, we should be as well.  Basically, unless we can justify bonafide work is being performed when our client is out of office, we're unable to bill that time.  Federal closures/site closures for inclimate weather is handled the same way.

I may be over simplifying this, but, that's the easiest way I can explain it.  I do plan to inquire with each of our CO/COR's to request clarification on how they would like us to proceed, but before doing so - was curious to input from the experts on wifcon.

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You need to look at your contract clauses.

I issued many service contracts. In some cases, government holidays were irrelevant (e.g. ship repairs at contractor facilities or data analysis services that did not require access to government offices). In other cases, the contractor was required to provide on-site support at government offices. In the latter case, the contract contained a clause stating that support would, or would not, not be provided on holidays.

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CHILIN - No intent to complicate this as the advice provided already hits the high points but as issues of Inauguration Day holiday, weather closings and Executive Order declared leave days are instances that have occurred in the past as they relate to  Federal contracting many times you can find guidance in previous forum discussions.   I did some basic research in WIFCON and found this discussion thread that may help.  In the end you will find no clear cut answer other than what you and your CO(s) decide to do about the leave day.

Here is an additional Navy document found here - http://www.secnav.navy.mil/rda/OneSource/Documents/Contract%20Labor%20Standards%20and%20Relations/extraordinaryfederalleavedaysandcontractoremployees2009.doc.   

"Extraordinary Federal Leave Days and Contractor Employees:

 

President Obama recently issued an executive order excusing most Federal executive agency employees from duty the last half of the work day on Christmas Eve, December 24th, 2009.  The President and executive agency management also sometimes excuse employees from duty [without loss of pay and without being required to use leave] in other similar circumstances such as weather related closures and delays, security and emergency situations, National days of mourning and inauguration day [D.C. locality only].  Such decisions often leave contractor employees wondering how these executive branch actions will affect them.

 

The answer varies depending upon a number of things, primarily the contractor’s leave and pay policies. 

 

First, it should be noted that the President’s or executive agency’s actions do not create additional Federal holidays.  Federal holidays may only be created by the legislative branch with the President then signing them into law.

 

Government contract terms and conditions are generally silent on such matters and therefore leave such matters for the contractor to manage.

 

Contracts for supplies and manufactured goods do not contain requirements for contractor employee holiday and vacation entitlements.  Any holiday or paid time-off payments are completely up to the contractor.  On the other hand construction contracts subject to the Davis-Bacon Act and service contracts subject to Service Contract Act (SCA) commonly contain wage determinations that apply to the non-exempt workers employed under the contract.  The wage determinations do contain requirements for paid holidays, but do not address any “extraordinary days off” such as those mentioned above.  Any Federally mandated paid holidays for non-exempt construction or service employees will be explicitly found in the wage determination.  The Department of Labor provided guidance for SCA-covered contracts last year which covered a similar executive order issued by President Bush for the day after Christmas, December 26th 2008.  The same principles will apply to the Obama Executive Order for Christmas Eve and other similar days when Federal workers are excused from duty:

 

 

 

Holiday Pay for Day After Christmas (December 26, 2008)

For Service Contract Workers

 

 

Government contractors subject to the requirements of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) are required to compensate covered employees in accordance with the wages and fringe benefits listed in the applicable wage determination included in the specific contract. 

 

Most SCA wage determinations list the ten Federal holidays as a fringe benefit for which payment is required.  In these cases, because the Day after Christmas is not a named holiday contained in the wage determination, paid time off for that day would not be required under the SCA.  In these cases, any pay provided for time off on December 26, 2008, will be a matter of discretion for the contractor.  Issues regarding contract payments for such time not worked would be a procurement matter within the purview of the contracting agency.  Contractors, however, may allow covered employees to take paid leave benefits for that day off in accordance with the contractor’s standard leave policies.

 

In certain instances, the SCA wage determination applicable to a contract, (including those based on a collective bargaining agreement under 4(c)), may include a paid holiday provision for any day declared by the U.S. President to be a holiday, such as the Day after Christmas, National Day of Observance, or for any work day where the Federal facility is closed.  In these instances, holiday pay would be required under the SCA for December 26, 2008.  

 

Contractor employees, therefore, should look to their management concerning whether they will be relieved from scheduled work days/hours and in particular whether such time will be considered paid time off or not.

 

If questions arise concerning impact on a Navy/Marine Corps contract, contracting officers should contact the Navy or NAVFAC Labor Advisor for guidance, since it is not possible to provide a standard answer that will apply to all situations."

 

 

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