Sauer Construction, LLC (B-423138; B-423138.3)

You should not care.

Category: Labor agreement, PLA, Navy, Executive Order 14063

Date: 4 February 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423138%2Cb-423138.3

Sauer Construction, LLC, protested the award of a task order to RQ Construction, LLC, for renovation and repair services at Naval Station Norfolk, arguing that Navy failed to properly evaluate RQ’s project labor agreement (PLA) in accordance with the solicitation’s requirement to comply with FAR 52.222-33 and 52.222-34. The Navy conceded that it did not conduct a contemporaneous evaluation of PLAs but argued that Sauer was not prejudiced by this oversight.

• PLA evaluation failure: Navy admitted that it did not assess offerors’ PLAs for compliance with the FAR prior to award, as required.
• Competitive prejudice: GAO found that, despite this procedural failure, Sauer was not prejudiced because RQ’s PLA, upon review, met the FAR’s requirements.
• Executive Order challenge: Sauer claimed RQ’s PLA violated Executive Order 14063 by using an unqualified labor organization, but GAO ruled that no law or regulation defined what constituted an “appropriate labor organization.”

Although the agency failed to evaluate PLAs as required, Sauer could not show that it was prejudiced or that RQ’s PLA was noncompliant. Protest denied..

Digest

Protest arguing that agency failed to evaluate whether the awardee’s project labor agreement (PLA) complied with FAR provision 52.222-33, as required by the solicitation, is denied where the protester fails to establish that it was competitively prejudiced by the agency’s failure to evaluate the awardee’s PLA.