CWA Statement on Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order

Washington, D.C. — Statement by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) on President Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order:

CWA commends the Obama administration for standing up for millions of working Americans who have been victimized by taxpayer-funded federal contractors who break labor laws and for taking action to prevent this abuse. The administration’s executive order on federal contractors, set to take effect this month, will hold unscrupulous employers accountable for their illegal actions and provide needed protection for workers against wage theft and other labor law violations.

Last week, three contractor organizations filed a lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the Executive Order and avoid accountability for labor law violations.  This is corporate greed at its worst. Companies that profit from taxpayer dollars have been breaking the law and abusing workers, many of whom don’t even earn a living wage. Insisting that federal contractors simply obey the law and respect workers’ rights, as the new Executive Order regulations require, is common sense.

The regulations not only will safeguard workers, but will help protect taxpayers and law-abiding businesses that are harmed when law-breaking contractors underperform. The federal government must be a model employer, not one that subsidizes or rewards illegal activity.

The recently-filed lawsuit against these regulations insists that federal contractors should be allowed to collect money from our government while running roughshod over our laws.  It’s an outrageous move against taxpayers, workers, and responsible employers, and we expect their suit to ultimately fail.

Hardworking Americans, many of whom are paid less than $10 an hour, have faced a multitude of abuses at the hands of taxpayer-funded companies. A U.S. Senate investigation revealed that nearly one-third of the top violators of federal wage and safety laws were federal contractors. The National Employment Law Project interviewed federally contracted workers and discovered that many of these low-wage employees had been cheated of their wages, forced to work “off the clock,” injured on the job and denied rest breaks.

This executive order will enable the federal government to ensure its contractors comply with labor laws and avoid unreliable vendors. Prospective contractors seeking to do business with the federal government must disclose any violations of workplace protections going back three years, a necessary step to help contractors improve their behavior or run the risk of losing out on lucrative government business in the future.

This measure helps improve working conditions for the more than 2 million people who work for federal contractors and levels the playing field for responsible businesses, all by making sure taxpayers receive the best return on their dollars.