The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management confirmed Tuesday that contracts for nuclear cleanup sites are being modified to include paid leave for certain workers who cannot telecommute during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Environmental Management “is in the process of modifying applicable prime contracts to incorporate a contract clause to implement Section 3610 of the CARES Act” regarding paid leave, the spokesperson said via email.
Documents on a federal procurement website Monday indicated DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is already inserting language to its prime contracts allowing government reimbursement for paid time off at major nuclear-weapon sites.
Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act gives DOE contract officers authority to modify terms and conditions of agreements to ensure that affected vendor employees can qualify for an average of up to 40 hours per week of pay while schedules are disrupted by the pandemic.
Across the DOE complex, NNSA and Environmental Management have dramatically increased use of telework since late last month in order to slow the potential spread of COVID-19. For example, at the Hanford Site in Washington state, no more than 20% of the normal 11,000-person workforce is physically on-site. At the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, which has EM and NNSA operations, up to 2,500 members of a roughly 11,000-member workforce are reporting to work on-site.
Industry sources say a number of contract workers, however, cannot do their jobs remotely. These include blue-collar workers such as mechanics and heavy equipment operators, along with scientists and others who work with classified data as part of their jobs. Most DOE nuclear sites reduced operations by March 30, with many vendor employees now drawing pay under a “weather” exemption in their contracts, which only lasts 30 days. The legislation could enable them to keep drawing a check through Sept. 30.
