Security Guards Reach Settlement With Former Site Security Contractor
NS&D Monitor
7/25/2014
More than 350 Oak Ridge security guards will receive back pay for overtime as a result of a settlement in their 2012 federal lawsuit against G4S Government Solutions, the government’s former security contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The civil case had been scheduled to go to trial in August. The settlement was announced late this week by Garry Ferraris, the attorney who represented 358 members of the International Guards Union of America, Local 3. Ferraris said the out-of-court settlement was for about $2.64 million, which covered back pay for the guards, liquidated damages and attorney fees.
The lawsuit alleged that security police officers were not properly paid for the time spent on “off the clock” activities that were required before the guard shifts officially began and after they ended. G4S, also known as Wackenhut or WSI-Oak Ridge, was the government’s security contractor at Y-12 from 2000 until October 2012, when its contract was terminated because of a security breach that occurred earlier that year. Wackenhut—or WSI-Oak Ridge—also was security contractor at ORNL until March 2013.
Average Settlement for Guards was $5,000
WSI was alleged to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying guards for some of the preparatory work—reporting to the gun room, waiting in line for assigned weapons, loading weapons, getting radios, etc.—that was necessary before the guards reached their security posts and some of the travel time and administrative tasks that were required at the end of their shifts.
The settlement was approved by U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan. “After reviewing the mutual settlement agreement, the Court concludes the settlement is a fair and reasonable compromise of a bona-fide dispute,” the judge’s order stated. The court document said that the settlement does not constitute an admission of liability by the defendant. The average settlement for the guards was a little more than $5,000 apiece, Ferraris said. However, individual amounts varied according to the number of shifts worked and the instances during which they qualified for overtime, he said.
B&W Y-12 took over the security role at Y-12 after Wackenhut was fired from its job in October 2012, but the lawsuit did not include B&W because it made adjustments when it took over to pay the guards for the extra time spent on duties, Ferraris said. Some of the 358 guards who were part of the lawsuit did not qualify for a financial settlement because of the timing of their shifts, but Ferraris said he reduced his attorney fee to make sure those on the “zero end” got some payment. “Nobody walked away with nothing,” he said.
