In 2010, a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office showed that nearly 40% of the 50 largest health and safety penalties issued between 2005 and 2009 were issued to companies which soon received new government contracts. 
In 2014, President Obama signed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order requiring companies to disclose labor violations during the consideration period for federal contracts.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said that “The opportunity to contract with the federal government is a privilege, not an entitlement. Taxpayer dollars should not reward corporations that break the law, and contractors who meet their responsibilities should not have to compete against those who do not.”
This seems to be a reasonable statement, but companies who would otherwise be awarded government contracts might feel differently. This ruling would cover all serious violations in the past three years, which some may feel is too long to hold a company accountable for their mistakes.
Others may feel that the disclosure process is too difficult. Both the Department of Labor and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Committee have acknowledged that the process of notifying the government of violations is difficult, and so both have worked on streamlining the process. However, loopholes still exist through which non-compliant companies can obscure their violations.
The Executive Order also says that contracted companies must provide updates on their inspection status to the government every 6 months, which could prove disruptive if a group sees any major violations during the time of its contract. While the government is right to not want any labor violations occurring under its watch, this may serve to lengthen the process of the project because a new company will have to be found to replace the old one.
