(a) Early in the acquisition cycle, the contracting officer shall determine whether section 4(c) of the Act affects the new acquisition. The contracting officer shall determine whether there is a predecessor contract covered by the Act and, if so, whether the incumbent prime contractor or its subcontractors and any of their employees have a collective bargaining agreement.
(b) Section 4(c) of the Act provides that a successor contractor must pay wages and fringe benefits (including accrued wages and benefits and prospective increases) to service employees at least equal to those agreed upon by a predecessor contractor under the following conditions:
(1) The services to be furnished under the proposed contract will be substantially the same as services being furnished by an incumbent contractor whose contract the proposed contract will succeed.
(2) The services will be performed in the same locality.
(3) The incumbent prime contractor or subcontractor is furnishing such services through the use of service employees whose wages and fringe benefits are the subject of one or more collective bargaining agreements.
(c) The application of section 4(c) of the Act is subject to the following limitations:
(1) Section 4(c) of the Act will not apply if the incumbent contractor enters into a collective bargaining agreement for the first time and the agreement does not become effective until after the expiration of the incumbent’s contract.
(2) If the incumbent contractor enters into a new or revised collective bargaining agreement during the period of the incumbent’s performance on the current contract, the terms of the new or revised agreement shall not be effective for the purposes of section 4(c) of the Act under the following conditions:
(i)
(A) In sealed bidding, the contracting agency receives notice of the terms of the collective bargaining agreement less than 10 days before bid opening and finds that there is not reasonable time still available to notify bidders (see 22.1012-2(a)); or
(B) For contractual actions other than sealed bidding, the contracting agency receives notice of the terms of the collective bargaining agreement after award, provided that the start of performance is within 30 days of award (see 22.1012-2(b)); and
(ii) The contracting officer has given both the incumbent contractor and its employees’ collective bargaining agent timely written notification of the applicable acquisition dates (see 22.1010).
(d)
(1) If section 4(c) of the Act applies, the contracting officer shall obtain a copy of any collective bargaining agreement between an incumbent contractor or subcontractor and its employees. Obtaining a copy of an incumbent contractor’s collective bargaining agreement may involve coordination with the administrative contracting officer responsible for administering the predecessor contract. (Paragraph (m) of the clause at 52.222-41, Service Contract Act of 1965, requires the incumbent prime contractor to furnish the contracting officer a copy of each collective bargaining agreement.)
(2) If the contracting officer has timely received the collective bargaining agreement, the contracting officer may use the WDOL website to prepare a wage determination referencing the agreement and incorporate that wage determination, attached to a complete copy of the collective bargaining agreement, into the successor contract action. In using the WDOL process, it is not necessary to submit a copy of the collective bargaining agreement to the Department of Labor unless requested to do so.
(3) The contracting officer may also use the e98 process on WDOL to request that the Department of Labor prepare the cover wage determination. The Department of Labor's response to the e98 may include a request for the contracting officer to submit a complete copy of the collective bargaining agreement. Any questions regarding the applicability of the Act to a collective bargaining agreement should be directed to the agency labor advisor.
(e)
(1) Section 4(c) of the Act will not apply if the Secretary of Labor determines
(i) after a hearing, that the wages and fringe benefits in the predecessor contractor’s collective bargaining agreement are substantially at variance with those which prevail for services of a similar character in the locality, or
(ii) that the wages and fringe benefits in the predecessor contractor’s collective bargaining agreement are not the result of arm’s length negotiations (see 22.1013 and 22.1021). The Department of Labor (DOL) has concluded that contingent collective bargaining agreement provisions that attempt to limit a contractor’s obligations by means such as requiring issuance of a wage determination by the DOL, requiring inclusion of the wage determination in the contract, or requiring the Government to adequately reimburse the contractor, generally reflect a lack of arm’s length negotiations.
(2) If the contracting officer's review (see 22.1013) indicates that monetary provisions of the collective bargaining agreement may be substantially at variance or may not have been reached as a result of arm's length bargaining, the contracting officer shall immediately contact the agency labor advisor to consider if further action is warranted.
(f) If the services are being furnished at more than one location and the collectively bargained wage rates and fringe benefits are different at different locations or do not apply to one or more locations, the contracting officer shall identify the locations to which the agreements apply.
(g) If the collective bargaining agreement does not apply to all service employees under the contract, the contracting officer shall access WDOL to obtain the prevailing wage determination for those service employee classifications that are not covered by the collective bargaining agreement. The contracting officer shall separately list in the solicitation and contract the service employee classifications-
(1) Subject to the collective bargaining agreement and
(2) Not subject to any collective bargaining agreement.
