The Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, as amended (41 U.S.C. 35-45),
hereinafter referred to as the Act, was enacted ``to provide conditions
for the purchase of supplies and the making of contracts by the United
States.'' It is not an act of general applicability to industry. The
Supreme Court has described it as an instruction by the Government to
its agents who were selected and granted final authority to fix the
terms and conditions under which the Government will permit goods to be
sold to it. Its purpose, according to the Supreme Court ``was to impose
obligations upon those favored with Government business and to obviate
the possibility that any part of our tremendous national expenditures
would go to forces tending to depress wages and purchasing power and
offending fair social standards of employment.'' (``Perkins v. Lukens
Steel Co.,'' 310 U.S. 113, 128 (1940); ``Endicott Johnson Corp. v.
Perkins,'' 317 U.S. 501 (1943).) To this end, the Act requires those who
enter into contracts to perform Government work subject to its terms to
adhere to specifically prescribed representations and stipulations as
set forth in 41 CFR 50-201.1 pertaining to qualifications of
contractors, minimum wages, overtime pay, safe and sanitary working
conditions of workers employed on the contract, the use of child labor
or convict labor on the contract work, and the enforcement of such
provisions. Except as otherwise specifically provided, these
representations and stipulations are required to be included in every
contract ``for the manufacture or furnishing of materials, supplies,
articles, and equipment in any amount exceeding $10,000'' which is made
and entered into by an agency of the United States or other entity as
designated in section 1 of the Act, hereinafter referred to as
``contracting agency.'' Contractors performing work subject to the Act
thus ``enter into competition to obtain Government business on terms of
which they are fairly forwarned by inclusion in the contract.''
(``Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Perkins, supra,'' 317 U.S. at 507.) The Act
also provides for enforcement of the required representations and
stipulations by various methods. Certain exemptions from the application
of the Act are provided in section 9 of the statute. Other exemptions,
variations, and tolerances may be provided under section 6 of the
statute by the Secretary of Labor or the President.
[43 FR 22975, May 30, 1978. Redesignated at 61 FR 40716, Aug. 5, 1996]
