Contractors navigate workplace mediation without roadmap

Federal agencies are challenged with how to treat worker grievances from contractors, who do not have the same mediation procedures as federal workers.

As agencies’ reliance on contractors grow, so do the challenges of handling contractor workers’ pay, harassment and other workplace issues, The Washington Post reports.

Contractors do not have the same avenues of mediation as federal workers do. Outside agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission step in for contractor grievances, or workers must hire private lawyers.

The Post reports that in the last decade, the EEOC has ruled in 90 cases that a federal agency and a private contractor are “joint employers” and the contractor is considered a civil servant.

According to the article, “With blurred lines between contractors and federal employees, it leaves workers in a murky zone.”

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